Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
Andre GideRead
The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free is the task.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being free is not just about having the ability, but about actively embracing and exercising that freedom.
This quote by Andre Gide highlights the distinction between merely having the potential to attain freedom and the ongoing responsibility to live in a way that genuinely embodies that freedom. It suggests that true freedom is not a passive state but a proactive journey that requires effort and commitment.
Themes
FreedomResponsibilityCapacityTaskLife
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker may use this quote to inspire individuals to take charge of their lives.
More from Andre Gide
All quotes βDo not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.
Andre GideRead
Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.
Andre GideRead
Through fear of resembling one another, through horror of having to submit, through uncertainty as well, through skepticism and complexity, there is a multitude of individual little beliefs for the triumph of strange little individuals.
Andre GideRead
It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
Andre GideRead
It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.
Andre GideRead
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