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It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.

— André Gide

C'est avec de beaux sentiments qu'on fait de la mauvaise littérature.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Letter to François Mauriac (1929)

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Books

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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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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.