To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.
Genuine
Yes. In The Immoralist (1902), Première partie, chapter I (Michel’s opening speech to his friends), L’Immoraliste (1902).
Checked against André Gide, L’Immoraliste (first published Paris: Mercure de France, 1902; read in a modern French edition printed by Brodard et Taupin, archive.org copy), Première partie, chapter I, p. 17 of the edition read (the running head ‘18 L’IMMORALISTE’ follows the sentence), in the text of a page scan, not the image.
The wording people share comes from another translation than ours.
- Work
- The Immoralist (L’Immoraliste), 1902
- Where
- Première partie, chapter I (Michel’s opening speech to his friends), L’Immoraliste (1902)
- Translation
- Our own, not yet reviewed (no public-domain translation in our sources)
- Source
- André Gide, L’Immoraliste (first published Paris: Mercure de France, 1902; read in a modern French edition printed by Brodard et Taupin, archive.org copy), Première partie, chapter I, p. 17 of the edition read (the running head ‘18 L’IMMORALISTE’ follows the sentence)
- Checked
- In the text of a page scan, not the image
Researched by AI. Entry updated 24 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
Michel’s opening speech, after the short account by one of his friends of their arrival. Michel has summoned three old friends to his remote home in Algeria and, after dinner on the terrace, starts to tell them his life. He says that he has reached a point he cannot pass, that he needs to speak, and then says this. What follows is his own account of how, after nearly dying of tuberculosis, he threw off duty and convention, and what that cost his wife Marceline.
What it means
Michel says that breaking free of a past or a constraint is easy beside the harder question of what to do with the freedom once it has been won; he is describing his own state, as a man who has freed himself and does not know how to be free.
Often misread
Shared as a general line about liberty, as if Gide were stating it as wisdom. It is said by Michel, the narrator the novel puts on trial: the freedom he has taken at the cost of others has left him unable to use it, and the book does not tell us he is right.
Topics
Related quotes
- Of things some are in our power, and others are not. Epictetus
- The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering. Fyodor Dostoevsky
- You cannot be the person they know and the great, glorious person you want to become. Not at the same time. Chuck Palahniuk
- Some are born to enjoy illusions, others are cursed to see the truth. (not found) Friedrich Nietzsche
Sources
- archive.org/details/limmoraliste0000andr_b0w9 (L’Immoraliste, modern French edition)
Cite it
André Gide, The Immoralist (1902), Première partie, chapter I (Michel’s opening speech to his friends), L’Immoraliste (1902), our own translation. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/to-know-how-to-free-oneself-is-nothing/ (24 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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