Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821–81) was a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic.
Born in Geneva, Amiel lost his parents at an early age. He traveled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe, and made a unique study of German philosophy in Berlin. He became a professor of aesthetics (1849) and moral philosophy (1853–81) at the Academy of Geneva.
Amiel published some essays and poems, but his fame as an intellectual and a critic rest on his diaries (1847 onwards,) published posthumously as Journal in Time (1883; Private Journal.) British writer Mary Augusta Ward, at the suggestion of academic Mark Pattison, translated it into English.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Henri Frederic Amiel
Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Action
Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Heroism
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Self-interest, Selfishness
A belief is not true because it is useful.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Belief
Will localizes us; thought universalizes us.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Will, Willpower, Will Power
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
Topics: Sadness
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
Topics: Greatness & Great Things, Greatness
A woman is sometimes fugitive, irrational, indeterminable, illogical and contradictory. A great deal of forbearance ought to be shown her, and a good deal of prudence exercised with regard to her, for she may bring about innumerable evils without knowing it. Capable of all kinds of devotion, and of all kinds of treason, monster incomprehensible, raised to the second power, she is at once the delight and the terror of man.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Women
The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man which it forms.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Man
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
Topics: Love, Feelings, Woman
A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Gardening
To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Habit
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Action
Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Instincts, Intelligence
What is an intelligent man? A man who enters with ease and completeness into the spirit of things and the intention of persons, and who arrives at an end by the shortest route.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Intelligence
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Relationships
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
For purposes of action, nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Action, Secrets of Success
What we do not understand we have no right to judge.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Judgment
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
Topics: Thoughts, Thinking, Thought
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
Topics: Living, Life, Kindness, Nature
Order means light and peace, inward liberty and free command over one’s self; order is power.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Order
To marry unequally is to suffer equally.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Marriage
The best path through life is the highway.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Self-Discovery
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
Topics: Difficulty
Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Sympathy
Time wasted is a theft from God.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Value of Time, Time Management
The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Simplicity
Man is a passion which brings a will into play, which works an intelligence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Instincts
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Satisfaction, Charm
Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for others is genius.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Difficulty, Genius
Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Tears, Crying
To repel one’s cross is to make it heavier.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Responsibility, Acceptance
Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Music
The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Passion
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
Topics: Simplicity, Decisions
We must dare to be happy, and dare to confess it, regarding ourselves always as the depositories, not as the authors of our own joy.
—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
Nothing resembles pride so much as discouragement.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Failure
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