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
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. – Andre Gide
A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective. – Andre Gide
Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. – 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