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The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?

— André Gide The Immoralist (1902)

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More quotes by André Gide

To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.

The Immoralist (1902)

There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.

Si le grain ne meurt [If It Die (1924)

The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.

There is no feeling so simple that it is not immediately complicated and distorted by introspection.

Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

Generally among intelligent people are found nothing but paralytics and among men of action nothing but fools.

Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

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Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.

Democritus Freeman (1948)

True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.

William Wordsworth

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator.

William Shakespeare The Rape of Lucrece (1594)

To the artist, to the musician, is given the task of creating and expressing beauty--of sensitizing the souls of men.

Howard Hanson

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: André Gide (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.