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Les Nourritures Terrestres/The Fruits of The Earth

“Il y a d’étranges possibilités dans chaque homme. Le présent serait plein de tous les avenirs, si le passé n’y projetait déjà une histoire. Mais, hélas ! un unique passé propose un unique avenir – le projette devant nous, comme un pont infini sur l’espace.

On n’est sûr de ne jamais faire que ce que l’on est incapable de comprendre. Comprendre, c’est se sentir capable de faire.

ASSUMER LE PLUS POSSIBLE D’HUMANITÉ, voilà la bonne formule.”

André Gide, Les Nourritures Terrestres, 1897, pp. 13-14

“There are strange possibilities in every man. The present would be pregnant with all futures if the past had not already projected its history into it. But, alas, a one and only past can offer us no more than a one and only future–which it casts before us like an infinite bridge over space. 

We can only be sure of never doing what we are incapable of understanding. To understand is to feel capable of doing. 

ASSUME AS MUCH HUMANITY AS POSSIBLE–let this be your motto.”


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