Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly. – Andre Gide
Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves! – Andre Gide
The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity. – Andre Gide
Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you. – Andre Gide
And to my thinking as a lover of life, butterflies, soap-bubbles, and whatever is of their kind among men, know most of happiness. To see these light, foolish, delicate, mobile little souls flitting about—that moveth Zarathustra to tears and to song. – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), “Of Reading and Writing,” Thus Spake Zarathus