André Gide

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

People cannot discover new lands until they have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

A man can seldom – very, very, seldom – fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

We live in an era of tremendous facts. And the facts are facts. They are also unpleasant facts, which does not decrease their factual percentage one bit. Our job is to understand them, to recognize their presence, to learn if we can what they signify and not to fall into the error of minimizing facts because they have a bitter flavor.

All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.

Grief is a process to go through, not a destination in which to wallow. In a process, you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and each little step is part of your healing.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Failure is no accident.

Possessions are always secondary, loved ones are all that matters.

Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.

I don’t write letters anymore.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

Life did not stop, and one had to live.

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.

If you wish to clear away the clouds of thought, simply keep your mind in the present.

Much depends on people knowing what opportunity means; it doesn’t mean a silver platter, it oftener means a spade. Self-help means something sterner than ‘help yourself’–reach over and take it.