39 quotes
French author and Nobel laureate (1869–1951)
“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of shore for a very long time.”
"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not."
on Identity
"Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason."
on Art
"Oh would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas as the tree does its withered leaves!"
on Philosophy
"The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity."
on Truth
"We live counterfeit lives in order to resemble the idea we first had of ourselves."
"Seize from every moment its unique novelty and do not prepare your joys."
on Mindfulness
"If one could recover the uncompromising spirit of one's youth one's greatest indignation would be for what one has become."
on Life
"Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness."
on Happiness
"Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves."
on Education
"What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it."
"In a world in which everyone cheats, it's the honest man who passes for a charlatan."
"The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious."
on Communication
"Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice."
on Fear
"Poverty makes a slave out of men. In order to eat he will accept work that gives no pleasure."
on Poverty
"There is a germ of revolt lying in the spirit of inquiry and critical curiosity."
on Curiosity
"To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company."
on Writing
"The scholar seeks the artist finds."
"Our judgements about things vary according to the time left us to live -that we think is left us to live."
"Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases."
"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them."
