Top 259 Quotes & Sayings by Henri Frederic Amiel - Page 2

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.

Order is a great person's need and their true well being.

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.

The only substance properly so called is the soul.

Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.

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.

Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures.

Life is but a daily oscillation between revolt and submission.

To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent.

A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.

What we do not understand we have no right to judge

Kindness is gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us.

Order is man's greatest need, and his true well-being.

Men don't achieve truth because they lack humility and love of truth. They won't criticize their own beliefs. Truth would overwhelm them.

Criticism is above all a gift, an intuition, a matter of tact and flair; it cannot be taught or demonstrated--it is an art. Critical genius means an aptitude for discerning truth under appearances or in disguises which conceal it; for discovering it in spite of the errors of testimony, the frauds of tradition, the dust of time, the loss or alteration of texts. It is the sagacity of the hunter whom nothing deceives for long, and whom no ruse can throw off the trail.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence.

Self-interest is an inexhaustible source of convenient illusions. The number of beings who wish to see truly is extraordinarily small.

It is work which gives flavor to life.

Almost everything comes from almost nothing.

The growth and development of the soul is more important than power and glory.

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things.

The ideal, after all, is true than the real: for the ideal is the eternal element in perishable things.

Never to tire, never to grow cold; to be patient, sympathetic, tender; to look for the budding flower and the opening heart; to hope always; like God, to love always--this is duty.

Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind, and therefore independence of all social, political or religious prejudice... It loves one thing only... truth.

To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand; it is the cruelest trial reserved for self-devotion; it is what must have oftenest wrung the heart of the Son of man; and if God could suffer, it would be the wound we should be forever inflicting upon Him. He also - He above all - is the great misunderstood, the least comprehended.

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.

He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases t grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.

Every man is a priest, even involuntarily; his conduct is an unspoken sermon, which is forever preaching to others.

Before crime is committed conscience must be corrupted, and every bad man who succeeds in reaching a high point of wickedness begins with this.

Whatever impatience we may feel towards our neighbor, and whatever indignation our race may rouse in us, we are chained one to another, and, companions in labour and misfortune, have everything to lose by mutual recrimination and reproach. Let us be silent as to each other's weakness, helpful, tolerant, many, tender towards each other! Or, if we cannot feel tenderness, may we at least feel pity!

Will localizes us, thought universalizes us.

As it is impossible to be outside God, the best is consciously to dwell in Him.

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety nine retreat; That is progress.

Time is but the measure of the difficulty of a conception. Pure thought has scarcely any need of time, since it perceives the two ends of an idea almost at the same moment.

Time is but the space between our memories; as soon as we cease to perceive this space, time has disappeared.

The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.

The beautiful souls of the world have an art of saintly alchemy, by which bitterness is converted into kindness, the gall of human experience into gentleness, ingratitude into benefits, insults into pardon.

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart, in its cunning, quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamor within.

So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being. -Henri

Do not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer, and conquer. From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite.

The immense majority of our species are candidates for humanity, and nothing more.

Accept life, and you must accept regret.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

There is only one way of not hating those who do us wrong, and that is by doing them good.

He who floats with the current, who does not guide himself according to higher principles, who has no ideal, no convictions-such a man is . . . a thing moved, instead of a living and moving being-an echo, not a voice. The man who has no inner-life is a slave of his surroundings as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air.

Philosophy starts with doubt and loves only truth.

Man is a willful and covetous animal, who makes use of his intellect to satisfy his inclinations, but who cares nothing for truth, who rebels against personal discipline, who hates disinterested thought and the idea of self-education. Wisdom offends him, because it rouses in him disturbance and confusion, and because he will not see himself as he is.

The history of man is essentially zoological; it becomes human late in the day, and then only in the beautiful souls, the souls alive to justice, goodness, enthusiasm, and devotion. The angel shows itself rarely and with difficulty through the highly-organized brute.

It is dangerous to abandon one's self to the luxury of grief; it deprives one of courage, and even of the wish for recovery.

Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.

Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.

Men prefer the false due to habit, passion, will. Preference for truth is rare. Men are ruled by their fear of truth.

The test of every religious, political, or educational system, is the man which it forms. If a system injures the intelligence it is bad. If it injures the character it is vicious. If it injures the conscience it is criminal.

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.

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.

Religion is not a method, it is a life, a higher and supernatural life, mystical in its root and practical in its fruits; a communion with God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, a love which radiates, a force which acts, a happiness which overflows.

There is no curing a sick man who believes himself to be in health.

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