Frederic Quotes & Sayings

As soon as the injured classes have recovered their political rights, their first thought is not to abolish plunder (this would suppose them to possess enlightenment, which they cannot have), but to organize against the other classes, and to their own detriment, a system of reprisals - as if it was necessary, before the reign of justice arrives, that all should undergo a cruel retribution - some for their iniquity and some for their ignorance. — Frederic Bastiat

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

We thought philosophy ought to be patient and unravel people's mental blocks. Trouble with doing that is, once you've unravelled them, their heads fall off. — Frederic Raphael

The law has been perverted, and the powers of the state have become perverted along with it. The law has not only been turned from its proper function, but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose. The law has become a tool for every kind of greed. Instead of preventing crime, the law itself is guilty of the abuses it is supposed to punish. If this is true, it is a serious matter, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it. — Frederic Bastiat

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

The path matters more than the goal: happiness comes as we make our journey. — Frederic Lenoir

Life is an apprenticeship to the constant renunciations, to the steady failure of our claims, our hopes, our powers, our liberty. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Despoilers obey the Malthusian law; they multiply with the means of existence, and the means of existence of knaves is the credulity of their dupes. — Frederic Bastiat

A belief is not true because it is useful — Henri Frederic Amiel

And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade? — Frederic Bastiat

Time is the supreme illusion. It is but the inner prism by which we decompose being and life, the mode under which we perceive successively what is simultaneous in idea. — Henri Frederic Amiel

I find no foeman in the road but fear; to doubt is failure and to dare success. — Frederic Lawrence Knowles

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Indescribably filthy jokes are perpetrated by a ventriloquist with the aid of a puppet.

(Quoted from the Bulletin of The Juvenile Protective Association, May 1921) — Frederic Milton Thrasher

A man who has a head and hands is seldom left long in a state of destitution. — Frederic Bastiat

If we would see the color of our future, we must look for it in our present; if we would gaze on the star of our destiny, we must look for it in our hearts. — Frederic Farrar

Our true history is scarcely ever deciphered by others. The chief part of the drama is a monologue, or rather an intimate debate between God, our conscience, and ourselves. Tears, grieves, depressions, disappointments, irritations, good and evil thoughts, decisions, uncertainties, deliberations
all these belong to our secret, and are almost all incommunicable and intransmissible, even when we try to speak of them, and even when we write them down. — Henri Frederic Amiel

From every spot on earth we are equally near heaven and the infinite. — Henri Frederic Amiel

It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of responsibility entails. Will they never realize that they do not eliminate these consequences but merely pass them along to other people? The result is one injustice the more and one moral the less. — Frederic Bastiat

Whether the prayer of Seneca was granted we do not know; but, as we do not again hear of Marcus, it is probable that he died before his father, and that the line of Seneca, like that of so many great men, became extinct in the second generation. — Frederic William Farrar

I conclude by applying to political economy what Chateaubriand says of history: "There are," he says, two consequences in history; an immediate one, which is instantly recognized, and one in the distance, which is not at first perceived. These consequences often contradict each other; the former are the results of our own limited wisdom, the latter, those of that wisdom which endures. The providential event appears after the human event. God rises up behind men. Deny, if you will, the supreme counsel; disown its action; dispute about words; designate, by the term, force of circumstances, or reason, what the vulgar call Providence; but look to the end of an accomplished fact, and you will see that it has always produced the contrary of what was expected from it, if it was not established at first upon morality and justice.3 — Frederic Bastiat

When there is really nothing left to do or believe, except to remember, walking helps retrieve the absolute simplicity of presence, beyond all hope, before any expectation. — Frederic Gros

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism. — Henri Frederic Amiel

I can never look at these apparent contradictions between the great laws of nature without a feeling of physical uneasiness which amounts to suffering. Were mankind reduced to the necessity of choosing between two parties, one of whom injures his interest, and the other his conscience, we should have nothing to hope from the future. Happily, this is not the case; and to see Aristus regain his economical superiority, as well as his moral superiority, it is sufficient to understand this consoling maxim, which is no less true from having a paradoxical appearance, "To save is to spend. — Frederic Bastiat

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

I can find no words for what I feel. My consciousness is withdrawn into itself; I hear my heart beating, and my life passing. It seems to me that I have become a statue on the banks of the river of time, that I am the spectator of some mystery, and shall issue from it old, or no longer capable of age. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Is it not enough to shine,
To know that friends are true?
That love is born of friendship,
And who you are is you? — Frederic M. Perrin

Men of genius supply the substance of history, while the mass of men are but the critical filter, the limiting, slackening, passive force needed for the modification of ideas supplied by genius. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Nature seems to have treasured up the depth of our mind talents and abilities that we are not aware of; it is the privilege of the passions alone to bring them to light, and to direct us sometimes to surer and more excellent aims than conscious effort could. — Francois Alexandre Frederic, Duc De La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

A microscopic phantom of the universe; this is all that we are able to be. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Criticism is above all a gift, an intuition, a matter of tact and flair; it cannot be taught or demonstrated
it is an art. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail. — Henri Frederic Amiel

We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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. — Henri Frederic Amiel

To prevent the formation of fibrous scar tissue in the hamstrings, it is essential to reeducate the muscles as soon as possible. A week after a tear, you must perform gentle stretches for the back of the thighs. The goal is to stretch the injured muscles and especially to soften the scar so that it doesn't tear when you resume training. — Frederic Delavier

These are the rules of big business ... Get a monopoly; let society work for you; and remember that the best of all business is politics ... — Frederic C. Howe

When you are on foot, to arrive you must walk. — Frederic Gros

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain. — Frederic Bastiat

Imagine a state of affairs in which, for each man killed in action, two spring from the ground full of strength and energy. If there is a planet where such things happen, war, it must be admitted, is conducted there under conditions so different from those we see down here that it no longer deserves even to be called by the same name. — Frederic Bastiat

When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns it's back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe. — Frederic Bastiat

To be a great composer requires immense experience ... One acquires this by listening not only to other men's work, but above all to one's own! — Frederic Chopin

On a wrong road, inconsistency is inevitable; if it were not so, mankind would be sacrificed. A false principle never has been, and never will be, carried out to the end. — Frederic Bastiat

No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted word, failure and success and measure them by the eternal, not the earthly, standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be pre-eminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross
was that a failure. — Frederic Farrar

Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. — Frederic Chopin

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God. Then if a bird sing among your branches, do not be too eager to tame it. If you are conscious of something new - thought or feeling, wakening in the depths of your being - do not be in a hurry to let in light upon it, to look at it; let the springing germ have the protection of being forgotten, hedge it round with quiet, and do not break in upon its darkness. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Happiness has no limits, because God has neither bottom nor bounds, and because happiness is nothing but the conquest of God through love. — Henri Frederic Amiel

As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose
that it may violate property instead of protecting it
then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. — Frederic Bastiat

Our adversaries consider that an activity which is neither aided by supplies, nor regulated by government, is an activity destroyed. We think just the contrary. Their faith is in the legislator, not in mankind; ours is in mankind, not in the legislator. — Frederic Bastiat

Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic ... This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war. — Napoleon Bonaparte

The last thing is simplicity. After having gone through all the difficulties, having played an endless number of notes, it is simplicity that matters, with all its charm. It is the final seal on Art. Anyone who strives for this to begin with will be disappointed. You cannot begin at the end. — Frederic Chopin

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

Before giving advice we must have secured its acceptance, or, rather, have made it desired. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Little self-denials, little honesties, little passing words of sympathy, little nameless acts of kindness, little silent victories over favorite temptations-these are the silent threads of gold which, when woven together, gleam out so brightly in the pattern of life that God approves. — Frederic Farrar

The hunger and thirst for knowledge, the keen delight in the chase, the good humored willingness to admit that the scent was false, the eager desire to get on with the work, the cheerful resolution to go back and begin again, the broad good sense, the unaffected modesty, the imperturbable temper, the gratitude for any little help that was given - all these will remain in my memory though I cannot paint them for others. — Frederic William Maitland

The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious look, and the unknown faces make me dumb. — Frederic Chopin

Indeed, a more astounding fact, in the heart of society, cannot be conceived than this: That law should have become an instrument of injustice. — Frederic Bastiat

It is because I know all that science can bring to the world that I shall continue my efforts to ensure that it contributes to the happiness of all men, whether they be white, black, or yellow, and not to their annihilation in the name of some divine mission or other. — Frederic Joliot-Curie

If ignorance and passion are the foes of popular morality, it must be confessed that moral indifference is the malady of the cultivated classes. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Behavior is the perpetual revealing of us. What a man does, tells us what he is. — Frederic Dan Huntington

Man acquires wealth in proportion as he puts his labor to better account. — Frederic Bastiat

If abnegation has indeed so many charms for you, why do you fail to practice it in private life? Society will be grateful to you, for someone, at least, will reap the fruit; but to desire to impose it upon mankind as a principle is the very height of absurdity, for the abnegation of all is the sacrifice of all, which is evil erected into a theory. — Frederic Bastiat

The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. — Frederic Bastiat

the decisive proof that the people are dupes is when the priest is rich and powerful. — Frederic Bastiat

Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat: these two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other. — Frederic Bastiat

The first unquestionable proofs of the transformation of elements into different chemical elements have been provided by the study of the phenomena of radioactivity. — Frederic Joliot-Curie

For although Claudius had been accused of gambling and drunkenness, not only were no worse sins laid to his charge, but he had successfully established some claim to being considered a learned man. — Frederic William Farrar

There is no doubt that radium is transformed spontaneously into an active gas, radon, emitting at the same time alpha particles, or helions. — Frederic Joliot-Curie

Every situation is an equilibrium of forces; every life is a struggle between opposing forces working within the limits of a certain equilibrium — Henri Frederic Amiel

Society lives by faith, and develops by science. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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! — Henri Frederic Amiel

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. — Frederic Bastiat

Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law. Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general. — Frederic Bastiat

If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it. — Frederic Bastiat

The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary reputation of Matthew or Mark, but with the substance of their records of our Lord's life. They did not have to respect their actual words, as they would if they were transcribing the works of Thucydides or Plato. — Frederic G. Kenyon

The three most celebrated doctors on the island have been to see me. One sniffed at what I spat, the second tapped where I spat from, and the third sounded me and listened as I spat. The first said I was dead, the second that I was dying and the third that I'm going to die. — Frederic Chopin

Vichy proves one thing: if you don't want to know how low your fellow citizens can fall, and crawl, don't lose a war. — Frederic Raphael

Amedeo loved thick tomes, and in tackling them he felt the physical pleasure of undertaking a great task. Weighing them in his hand, thick, closely printed, squat, he would consider with some apprehension the number of pages, the length of the chapters, then venture into them, a bit reluctant at the beginning, without any desire to perform the initial chore of remembering the names, catching the drift of the story; then he would entrust himself to it, running along the lines, crossing the grid of the uniform page, and beyond the leaden print the flame and fire of battle appeared, the cannonball that, whistling through the sky, fell at the feet of Prince Andrei, and the shop filled with engravings and statues where Frederic Moreau, his heart in his mouth, was to meet the Arnoux family. Beyond the surface of the page you entered a world where life was more alive than here on this side ... — Italo Calvino

There is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling, except in the infinite; for the soul, except in the divine. — Henri Frederic Amiel

If the newspapers cut me up so much that I shall not venture before the world again, I have resolved to become a house painter; that would be as easy as anything else, and I should, at any rate, still be an artist! — Frederic Chopin

True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence. — Henri Frederic Amiel

However different men's fortunes may be, there is always something or other that balances the ill and the good, and makes all even at last. — Francois Alexandre Frederic, Duc De La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

It's always tempting to do good at someone else's expense — Frederic Bastiat

To understand is to possess the thing understood, first by sympathy and then by intelligence. — Henri Frederic 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 Frederic Amiel

Do you know I ate frog legs once?" Jonah asks. Uh-oh. "You what?" screams a horrified Frederic. "It's true!" Jonah says, clearly not catching the stop talking look I'm shooting him. "We went to a French restaurant for our dad's birthday and he ordered an appetizer of frog legs. Remember, Abby? We tried them! Both of us did!" "It was before I knew you," I tell Frederic apologetically. "They tasted like chicken!" Jonah exclaims. He's right. They did taste like chicken. "I think I'm going to throw up," Frederic moans. — Sarah Mlynowski

Love is faith and one faith leads to another. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Most frequently we make confidants from vanity, a love of talking, a wish to win the confidence of others, and to make an exchange of secrets. — Francois Alexandre Frederic, Duc De La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion. — Henri Frederic Amiel

The Imperial throne was occupied by Frederic III, who had been rightly named the Peaceful, not for the reason that he had always maintained peace, but because, having constantly been beaten, he had always been forced to make it. — Alexandre Dumas

We hold from God the gift which, as far as we are concerned, contains all others, Life - physical, intellectual, and moral life. — Frederic Bastiat

Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under which we live and to make certain choices that will affect the rest of our lives. — Frederic Flach

Nothing is more characteristic of a man than the manner in which he behaves toward fools. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it has cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but keeps you warm for a long time. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and is lending oneself to the universal illusion without becoming its dupe. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Young women that would not be thought coquettish, and old men that would not be ridiculous, should never talk of love, as if they had any concern in it. — Francois Alexandre Frederic, Duc De La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

How is it that the strange idea of making the law produce what it does not contain - prosperity, in a positive sense, wealth, science, religion - should ever have gained ground in the political world? — Frederic Bastiat

Of all the achievements of the human mind, the birth of the alphabet is the most momentous. — Frederic Goudy

Be pleased, gentlemen, to dispose of what belongs to yourselves as you think proper, but leave us the disposal of the fruit of our own toil, to use it or exchange it as we see best. Declaim on self-sacrifice as much as you choose, it is all very fine and very beautiful, but be at least consistent. — Frederic Bastiat

Anyone that would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep. — Frederic Goudy