Quotes By Henri Frederic Amiel

To marry unequally is to suffer equally.

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

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

Order is a great person's need and their true well being.

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

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

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

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

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

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

We only understand that which already is within us.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.

Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.

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

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

Order is power.

The best path through life is the highway.

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

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

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.

If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.

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.