Henri-Frédéric Amiel Quotes

It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.

~ Henri-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

I begin to realize that my memory is a great catacomb, and that below my actual standing-ground there is layer after layer of historical ashes. Is the life of mind something like that of great trees of immemorial growth? Is the living layer of consciousness super-imposed upon hundreds of dead layers? Dead? No doubt this is too much to say, but still, when memory is slack the past becomes almost as though it had never been. To remember that we did know once is not a sign of possession but a sign of loss; it is like the number of an engraving which is no longer on its nail, the title of a volume no longer to be found on its shelf. My mind is the empty frame of a thousand vanished images.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

~ Henri-Frédéric 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-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

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.

~ Henri-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

Let us never be afraid of innocent joy; God is good and what he does is well done; resign yourself to everything, even happiness; ask for the spirit of sacrifice, of detachment, of renunciation, and above all, for the spirit of joy and gratitude.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings, he is less duped than his neighbour by his own nature.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

A journal takes the place of a confidant, that is, of friend or wife; it becomes a substitute for production, a substitute for country and public. It is a grief-cheating device, a mode of escape and withdrawal; but, factotum as it is, though it takes the place of everything, properly speaking it represents nothing at all...

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Hindoo wisdom long ago regarded the world as the dream of Brahma. Must we hold with Fichte that it is the individual dream of each individual ego? Every fool would then be a cosmogonic poet producing the firework of the universe under the dome of the infinite.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Every life is a possession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent propaganda.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides never decides.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Faith is a certitude without proofs ... a sentiment for it is a hope it is an instinct for it precedes all outward instruction.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

To win true peace a man needs to feel himself directed pardoned and sustained by a supreme power to feel himself in the right road at the point where God would have him be-in order with God and the universe. This faith gives strength and calm.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

How then find the courage for action?... By accepting the human condition more simply and candidly by dreading troubles less calculating less hoping more.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Time wasted is a theft from God.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

To learn new habits is everything for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Man becomes man only by the intelligence but he is man only by the heart.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Learn to ... be what you are and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Learn to ... be what you are and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

~ Henri-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

~ Henri-Frédéric 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-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

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-Frédéric 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-Frédéric Amiel

The best path through life is the highway.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel