Henri Frederic Amiel

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a ...
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Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.

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

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

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

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

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

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.

Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

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

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

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.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

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

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

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

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.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

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

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

The best path through life is the highway.

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

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.

The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.

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

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

To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.

Thought is a kind of opium, it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake, it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists.

To shun one's cross is to make it heavier.

To marry unequally is to suffer equally.

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

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

True humility is contentment.

We only understand that which already is within us.

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

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

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.