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When I’m sad, I seem so grotesque to myself that it makes me laugh; when I’m cheerful, I make such idiotic jokes that I feel inclined to cry.

— André Gide

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Sadness

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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Life could not be lived wet, whether it be in rain or tears.

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In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

Solomon

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.

Abraham Lincoln

Every joy that some experience is paid for by the sorrow of others.

Kaneko Fumiko The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman (1991)

Attribution

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.