Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue. – Andre Gide
The young people who come to me in the hope of hearing me utter a few memorable maxims are quite disappointed. Aphorisms are not my forte, I say nothing but banalities…. I listen to them and they go away delighted. – Andre Gide
No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond. – Andre Gide
It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. – Andre Gide
It is very difficult to be wholly joyous or wholly sad on this earth. The comic, when it is human, soon takes upon itself a face of pain; and some of our grieves… have their source in weaknesses which must be recognized with smiling compassion as the common inheritance of us all. – Joseph Conrad