Words matter. These are the best Henri Frederic Amiel Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.
Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.
Learn to… be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
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.
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
True humility is contentment.
Order is a great person’s need and their true well being.
We only understand that which already is within us.
In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past – a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature… is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.
The only substance properly so called is the soul.
So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.
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.
Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
The best path through life is the highway.
Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.
Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.
Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
To marry unequally is to suffer equally.
Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.
If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.
I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.
Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
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.
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.
In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.
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.
Order is power.
Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.
Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one’s liberty.
