Henri Frederic Amiel Quotes

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.

Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with your kindness. Even if you do not achieve a victory over other people, you will conquer yourself.

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

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

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

The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.

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

What we do not understand we have no right to judge

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

Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, and virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.

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

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

Every man is a priest, even involuntarily; his conduct is an unspoken sermon, which is forever preaching to others.

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

Accept life, and you must accept regret.

He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases t grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.

To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.

Life is but a daily oscillation between revolt and submission.

At bottom, everything depends upon the presence or absence of one single element in the soul - HOPE

Let mystery have its place in you ; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring.

We are all visionaries, and what we see is our soul in things.

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

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

He who floats with the current, who does not guide himself according to higher principles, who has no ideal, no convictions-such a man is . . . a thing moved, instead of a living and moving being-an echo, not a voice. The man who has no inner-life is a slave of his surroundings as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air.

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.