Everything has already been said; but as no one listens, one must always begin again.

Gide begins by asking whether books are needed when a few myths once held a whole religion. He briefly recalls Narcissus contemplating his own image, acknowledges that the reader knows the story, and nevertheless proposes to tell it again. The sentence explains why a familiar myth can still require a new telling.

The fact that something has been said does not mean that it has been heard or understood; repetition can still be necessary.

Frequently used as a general complaint about people failing to listen. Here it also justifies literary retelling: the familiar myth is a starting point for a fresh exploration, not a reason to stop writing.

Change, Art

• Art is not a thing; it is a way. Elbert Hubbard
• Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible—as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead. (misattributed) Bernard Baruch
• The true teacher is a learner. Elbert Hubbard
• That is why true artists despise nothing: they require themselves to understand rather than judge. Albert Camus
• To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Oscar Wilde

• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/André_Gide
• fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Discussion:Le_Traité_du_narcisse
• catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb180764697
• fondation-catherine-gide.org/actualites/archives-contemporaines

André Gide, André Gide, Le Traité du Narcisse (Théorie du symbole), opening paragraphs; French transcription on Wikisource. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/everything-has-already-been-said/ (26 October 2026).

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