Quotes by Amiel, Henri Frederic

"The only substance properly so called is the soul."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on soul   

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"If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on state   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on action   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on action
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"For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on action
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"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."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on belief   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on change
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"It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on character
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"Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on charm
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"Sympathy is the first condition of criticism."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on sympathy   

"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."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on teacher   

"Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on tears
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"What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on things and little things   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on thoughts and thinking
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"Uncertainty is the refuge of hope."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on uncertainty   

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"Will localizes us; thought universalizes us."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on power   

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"Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on cleverness   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on common sense   

"Common sense is calculation applied to life."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on common sense   

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic on communication   

"Oh, order! Material order, intellectual order, moral order! What a comfort and strength, and what an economy! To know where we are going and what we want; that is order. To keep ones word, to do the right thing, and at the right time: more order. To have everything under ones hand, to put ones whole army through its manoeuvres, to work with all ones resources: still order. To discipline ones habits and efforts and wishes, to organize ones life and distribute ones time, to measure ones duties and assert ones rights, to put ones capital and resources, ones talents and opportunities to profit: again and always order. Order is light, peace, inner freedom, self-determination: it is power. To conceive order, to return to order, to realize order in oneself, around oneself, by means of oneself, this is aesthetic and moral beauty, it is well-being, it is what ought to be. "

Amiel, Henri Frederic on uncategorised   

"The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart in its cunning quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamor within."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on