Quotes By Henri Frederic Amiel

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

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

Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.

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.

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.

Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.

Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.

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

The only substance properly so called is the soul.

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.

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

I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

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

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

True humility is contentment.