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Quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel


There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary - they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.
– 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
I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
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
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
Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one's own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Order is a great person's need and their true well being.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Order is power.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The best path through life is the highway.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The only substance properly so called is the soul.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
To depersonalize man is the dominant drift of our times.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
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
To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
To marry unequally is to suffer equally.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
To shun one's cross is to make it heavier.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
True humility is contentment.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
We only understand that which already within us.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear, undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light, and serenity.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Will localizes us; thought universalizes us.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
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
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
All appears to change when we change.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Hope is only the love of life.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Learn to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and some definite work; dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not and to believe in your own individuality.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Liberty, equality - bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and life.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Truth is not only violated by falsehood it may be equally outraged by silence.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
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
In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.
– Henri Frederic Amiel