Henri Frédéric Amiel
Birthdate: September 27, 1821
Birthplace: Geneva, Switzerland
Date of Death: May 11, 1881
Occupation: Critic, Philosopher, and Poet
Profile: Best known for
Journal Intime.
Website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Frederic_Amiel
Number of Quotes: 74
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.
Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.
At bottom, everything depends upon the presence or absence of one single element in the soul - HOPE.
Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.
Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, and
virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.
Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.
Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
Common sense is calculation applied to life.
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty.
Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.
Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
Every man is a priest, even involuntarily; his conduct is an unspoken sermon, which is forever preaching to others.
Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.
For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; outdistanced, crushed; he who
ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.
I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.
If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.
In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.
It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we
examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.
It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.
Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who
are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.
Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.
Order is a great person's need and their true well being.
Order is power.
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.
Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our
faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin.
Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with your kindness. Even
if you do not achieve a victory over other people, you will conquer yourself.
Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.
Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.
Spite is anger which is afraid to show itself, it is an impotent fury conscious of its impotence.
Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.
Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.
Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp
is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.
Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of
thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.
The best path through life is the highway.
The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.
The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.
The man who has no inner-life is the slave of his surroundings.
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
The only substance properly so called is the soul.
The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man which it forms.
There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.
Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists.
To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to
read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.
To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
To marry unequally is to suffer equally.
To shun one's cross is to make it heavier.
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.
We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own iniquities. Every
successful massacre is consecrated by a Te Deum, and the clergy have never been wanting in benedictions for any victorious enormity.
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
We only understand that which already is within us.
What we do not understand we have no right to judge.
Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.
Without passion, without haste, we may reach truth, but we can never grasp it.
Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or
good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
Last on Earth
