Henri Frederic Amiel Quotes
"The best path through life is the highway."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life)
"Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Sacrifice, Law, Passion)
"So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Being, Living, Self)
"Sympathy is the first condition of criticism."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Sympathy, Criticism, First)
"Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Soul, Emotion, Self, Symbol, Tears)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Dying, Moon, Old, Will)
"Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Gratitude, Beginning, Completion, May, Thankfulness, Words)
"The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Fire)
"The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Man)
"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life, Man, Regret)
"Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Sacrifice, Rest, Salvation)
"The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Man, Religious)
"Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Music, Dream, Harmony, Heaven, Perfection)
"Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Thought, Mountains, Opium)
"The only substance properly so called is the soul."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Soul)
"Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Intelligence, Heart, Man)
"In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Affection, Past, Woman)
"In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Health, First, Freedom)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Teaching, Water, Writing)
"It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Man, Worth)
"Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Grace)
"Order is power."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Power, Order)
"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life, Time, Love, Haste, Journey)
"Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Truth)
"Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Truth, Materialism)
"Society lives by faith, and develops by science."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Science, Society, Faith)
"Order is a great person's need and their true well being."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Being, Order)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Talent, Genius)
"Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Duty)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Apology, Faults, Favorite, Nothing, Sin, Unconscious)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Art, Life, Virtue, Authority, Eloquence, Maxim)
"Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Survival, Humanity, Self)
"Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Family, Destiny, Destruction, Salvation, Woman)
"To shun one's cross is to make it heavier."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Age, People, Old, Silly)
"If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Nationality, State)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Art, Music, Soul, Interest, Key, Song, Teaching, Will)
"To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Courage)
"To marry unequally is to suffer equally."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"True humility is contentment."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Contentment, Humility)
"Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Truth, Falsehood, May, Silence)
"Uncertainty is the refuge of hope."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Hope, Uncertainty)
"We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life, Nature, Improvement, Nothing, Waste)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Possibility, Force, Man, Passion)
"Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Difficulty, Joy, Liberty)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Women, Pretty)
"Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Work, Talent, Light)
"We only understand that which already within us."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Childhood, Heaven)
"Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Faith, Thought, Action, Criticism, Doubt, Order, Reflection)
"Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Thought, Action, Unconscious)
"An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Truth, Error)
"Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Talent, Genius)
"Any landscape is a condition of the spirit."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Spirit)
"For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Thought, Action, Energy, Nothing, Will)
"Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Quality, Charm)
"Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: People, Cleverness, Nothing, Will)
"Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Cleverness, Nothing)
"Common sense is calculation applied to life."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life, Common sense)
"Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Experience, Life, Common sense, Measure)
"Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Destiny, Wishes)
"Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Life, Faith, Influence, Profession)
"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."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Success, Future)
"Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Spontaneity)