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
Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True ownership comes from our ability to share and give to others; if we hoard, we are actually being controlled by those possessions.
This quote by Andre Gide emphasizes the idea that genuine possession and control over something is demonstrated through our willingness to share it with others. When we are unable to give away what we have, it indicates that those possessions have a hold over us, suggesting that the act of giving liberates us from the attachment to material things, reflecting a deeper understanding of ownership and freedom.
Themes
PossessionGivingOwnershipFreedomMaterialism
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the importance of community service.
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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