The Wisdom Letter #232
4 quotes from André Gide (1869–1951)
✹ For today’s Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated four bite-sized quotes from the French writer and author, André Gide (1869–1951), each paired with a philosophical question meant to provoke deep reflection:
Quote № 01:
“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.”
— André Gide
~ Follow-up Question:
To what extent does the quote suggest that true innovation necessitates a radical departure from established paradigms, and how can individuals cultivate the resilience required for such a journey?
Quote № 02:
“What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself — and thus make yourself indispensable.”
— André Gide
~ Follow-up Question:
In an era of widespread information access and technological replication, how can individuals develop and maintain a sense of uniqueness and authenticity, and what role does creativity play in this process?
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Quote № 03:
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
— André Gide
~ Follow-up Question:
What are the ethical implications of pretending to be someone you are not in order to gain love or approval, and can such behavior be justified in certain circumstances?
Quote № 04:
“The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.”
— André Gide
~ Follow-up Question:
How does this perspective apply to historical events, where seemingly small or spontaneous actions led to massive consequences?
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M. Gide’s first quote strikes me as entirely personal counsel. One can mathematically eliminate all previous work on a given problem, plot a course using map and compass, but none of that addresses the emotional toll one suffers in the absence of familiar landmarks, the hollow feeling in the gut, sometimes amounting to terror. The impulse to retreat to more comfortable circumstances is tidal, a pull that some souls simply lack the fortitude to resist.
I am reminded how Lincoln was chided for pardoning deserting soldiers. I recall reading somewhere his belief that some are not constitutionally suited to stand and fight. Gide is alerting us that such a challenge lurks in the world of the artist, terror in the face of the blank page, canvas, musical score. A true soldiering-on is required, summoning up the blood, holding hard the aspect, like Henry V at Agincourt, but solitary, with no band of brothers at your back.
Q1: "To what extent does the quote suggest that true innovation necessitates a radical departure from established paradigms, and how can individuals cultivate the resilience required for such a journey?"
Thomas Kuhn, in his 1962 book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" pointed out there were long periods of 'normal science' (within the current ruling paradigm) that always preceded the ('sudden') 'paradigm shift' as the anomalies of the old paradigm became too obvious to ignore any longer.
However, those in power (in science, politics, religion, banking, etc) will resist like hell a new emerging paradigm because it means they will lose their power-position and prestige. There is too much vested interest in keeping the old beliefs going, not least psychologically if one has vested one's whole life-work in a model that's obviously wrong (= now out-dated). That's why 'science progresses one funeral at a time' as the old guard die off.
The 'radical departure' is more a creative attempt to offer some new explanatory model under the duress of the old model being for decades and even centuries obviously inadequate. This is why the essence of Newtonian Physics (re simple billiard-ball models of cause and effect) is still the driver of decision-making in everything from science to politics to management to war. "Management by Objectives" still rules even though quantum physics has been around for over 100 years. Or if you want to put it another way, it's the old Anthropocentric paradigm clinging on to top-down power-structures in the face of the new emerging Symbiocentric paradigm.