Frederic Amiel Quotes & Sayings

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

Let the living live; and you, gather together your thoughts, leave behind you a legacy of feeling and ideas; you will be most useful so. — 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

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

Any landscape is a condition of the spirit. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious. — 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

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

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

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

The immense majority of our species are candidates for humanity, and nothing more. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

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

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

Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh - over fear ... Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair. — 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

Christianity, if it is to triumph over pantheism, must absorb it. To our pusillanimous eyes Jesus would have borne the marks of a hateful pantheism, for he confirmed the Biblical phrase "ye are gods," and so would St. Paul, who tells us that we are of "the race of God." Our century wants a new theology - that is to say, a more profound explanation of the nature of Christ and of the light which it flashes upon heaven and upon humanity. — Henri Frederic Amiel

To shun one's cross is to make it heavier. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Life is but a daily oscillation between revolt and submission. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

In order to see Christianity, one must forget all the Christians. — Henri Frederic Amiel

What we do not understand we have no right to judge — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

The great majority of men are but tangled skeins, imperfect keyboards, so many specimens of restless or stagnant chaos
and what makes their situation almost hopeless is the fact that they take pleasure in it. There is no curing a sick man who believes himself in health. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify itself. It is persistence without a reasonable motive. It is the tenacity of self-love substituted for that of reason and conscience. — Henri Frederic Amiel

It would have been a joy to me to be smiled upon, loved, encouraged, welcomed, and to obtain what I was so ready to give, kindness and goodwill. But to hunt down consideration and reputation
to force the esteem of others
seemed to me an effort unworthy of myself, almost a degradation. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Will localizes us, thought universalizes us. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Man is a passion which brings a will into play, which works an intelligence. — 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

What governs men is the fear of truth. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Nothing resembles pride so much as discouragement. — Henri Frederic Amiel

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

The spirit of sarcasm lives and thrives in the midst of universal wreck; its balls are enchanted and itself invulnerable, and it braves retaliations and reprisals because itself is a mere flash, a bodiless and magical nothing. — Henri Frederic Amiel

The germs of all things are in every heart, and the greatest criminals as well as the greatest heroes are but different modes of ourselves. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Melancholy is at the bottom of everything, just as at the end of all rivers is the sea. Can it be otherwise in a world where nothing lasts, where all that we have loved or shall love must die? Is death, then, the secret of life? The gloom of an eternal mourning enwraps, more or less closely, every serious and thoughtful soul, as night enwraps the universe. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Oh be swift to live, make haste to be kind. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

Time wasted is a theft from God. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic, nor eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith - that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Kindness is gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Love is faith and one faith leads to another. — 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

Nothing finite is true, is interesting, is worthy to fix my attention. All that is particular is exclusive, and all that is exclusive repels me. — Henri Frederic Amiel

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. — Henri Frederic Amiel

The best path through life is the highway. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Life is short. We don't have much time to gladden the hearts of those who walk this way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind. — Henri Frederic Amiel

When everything has its proper place in our minds, we are able to stand in equilibrium with the rest of the world. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

The laws of animality govern almost the whole of history. — 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

Peace is not in itself a dream, but we know it only as the result of a momentary equilibrium
an accident. — Henri Frederic Amiel

True humility is contentment. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

Hope is only the love of life. — Henri Frederic Amiel

I find myself regarding existence as though from beyond the tomb, from another world; all is strange to me; I am, as it were, outside my own body and individuality; I am depersonalized, detached, cut adrift. Is this madness? — Henri Frederic Amiel

Reality, the present, the irreparable, the necessary, repel and even terrify me. I have too much imagination, conscience, and penetration and not enough character. The life of thought alone seems to me to have enough elasticity and immensity, to be free enough from the irreparable; practical life makes me afraid. I am distrustful of myself and of happiness because I know myself. The ideal poisons for me all imperfect possession. And I abhor useless regrets and repentance. — 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

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

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

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

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

[I]t is truth alone-scientific, established, proved, and rational truth-which is capable of satisfying nowadays the awakened minds of all classes. We may still say perhaps, 'faith governs the world,'-but the faith of the present is no longer in revelation or in the priest-it is in reason and in science. — 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

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. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Almost everything comes from almost nothing. — Henri Frederic Amiel

Our life is nothing, it is true, but our life is divine. A breath of nature annihilates us, but we surpass nature in penetrating far beyond her vast phantasmagoria to the changeless and the eternal. — Henri Frederic Amiel

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety nine retreat; That is progress. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

Emancipation from error is the condition of real knowledge. — Henri Frederic Amiel

The art which is grand and yet simple is that which presupposes the greatest elevation both in artist and in public. — Henri Frederic Amiel

To feel keenly the poetry of a morning's roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness. — Henri Frederic Amiel

An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains. — 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

Only evil grows of itself, while for goodness we want effort and courage. — Henri Frederic Amiel

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

War is a brutal and fierce means of pacification; it means the suppression of resistance by the destruction or enslavement of the conquered. — Henri Frederic Amiel