Quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

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

“Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.”

“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.”

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

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

“Common sense is the measure of the possible it is composed of experience and prevision it is calculation applied to life.”

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

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

“Society lives by faith, and develops by science.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.”

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

“The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.”

“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.”

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

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

“Order is power.”

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

“Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.”

“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.”

“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.”

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

“Truth is not only violated by falsehood it may be equally outraged by silence.”

“An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.”

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