Choosing seemed to me not so much selecting as rejecting what I did not select.
Genuine
Yes. In Fruits of the Earth (1897), Livre IV, section I, said by Ménalque. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Gide’s own voice.
Found word for word by program in the French original.
The English is our own translation, not yet reviewed: there is no public-domain translation of this text in our sources.
Checked against André Gide, Les Nourritures terrestres, deuxième édition (Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1897), French transcription on Wikisource, Livre IV, section I, in a full-text transcription.
- Work
- Fruits of the Earth (Les Nourritures terrestres), 1897
- Where
- Livre IV, section I
- Found at
- Paragraph 350 of the French text
- Translation
- Our own, not yet reviewed (no public-domain translation in our sources)
- Source
- André Gide, Les Nourritures terrestres, deuxième édition (Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1897), French transcription on Wikisource, Livre IV, section I
- Checked
- In a full-text transcription
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
Dans un jardin — sur la colline de Florence, (celle qui fait face à Fiesole) — où nous étions ce soir assemblés :
Mais vous ne savez pas — vous ne pouvez savoir, Angaire2, Ydier, Tityre, dit Ménalque1 (et je te le redis à présent en mon nom, Nathanaël) la passion qui brûla ma jeunesse. J’enrageais de la fuite des heures. La nécessité de l’option me fut toujours intolérable ; choisir m’apparaissait non tant élire, que repousser ce que je n’élisais pas. Je comprenais épouvantablement l’étroitesse des heures, et que le temps n’a qu’une dimension ; c’était une ligne que j’eusse souhaitée spacieuse, et mes désirs en y courant empiétaient nécessairement l’un sur l’autre. […]
De là me vint d’ailleurs un peu de cette aversion pour n’importe quelle possession sur la terre — la peur de n’aussitôt plus posséder que cela.
Marchandises ! provisions ! tas de trouvailles ! que ne vous donnez-vous sans retraite ? […]
The necessity of making a choice was always intolerable to me; choosing seemed to me not so much selecting as rejecting what I did not select.
The scene
In a garden on a Florentine hillside facing Fiesole, Ménalque recalls the restless desires of his youth. The narrator explicitly repeats his words to Nathanaël in his own name. Ménalque describes finite time, competing desires and the paralysis of fearing that any chosen experience will exclude all the others; he says this kept him from pursuing any study for long.
What it means
Choosing feels painful because it also means giving up the other possibilities, not merely obtaining one desirable thing.
Often misread
The passage is not simply advice to make firm decisions. It is Ménalque’s account of a former inability to decide, and of the impatience with possession that grew out of it; the narrator nevertheless expressly adopts the speech.
Topics
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Sources
Cite it
André Gide, Fruits of the Earth (1897), Livre IV, section I, our own translation. Spoken by Ménalque. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/choosing-seemed-to-me-not-so-much-selecting-as-rejecting/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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