Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amielwas a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 September 1821
CountrySwitzerland
justice may social-justice
We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own inequities.
soul may born
The soul may be immortal because she is fitted to rise towards that which is neither born nor dies, towards that which exists substantially, necessarily, invariably, that is to say towards God.
ambition dying may
Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.
mind may study
At bottom there is but one subject of study: the forms and metamorphoses of mind. All other subjects may be reduced to that; all other studies bring us back to this study.
race may weakness
Whatever impatience we may feel towards our neighbor, and whatever indignation our race may rouse in us, we are chained one to another, and, companions in labour and misfortune, have everything to lose by mutual recrimination and reproach. Let us be silent as to each other's weakness, helpful, tolerant, many, tender towards each other! Or, if we cannot feel tenderness, may we at least feel pity!
according duty
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.
french passion thirst truth
The thirst for truth is not a French passion
exercises faith inevitable life profession silent
Every life is a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
becoming both common consists delusion lending madness oneself rising superior universal wisdom
Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and in lending oneself to the universal delusion without becoming its dupe.
finite fragments infinite space time
Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of the finite creatures.
advice haste life swift
Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!
haste hearts life short swift time travel
Life is short and we never have enough time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel the way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.
corner fallow heart leave mystery ready seed soil turning winds
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...
understand within
We only understand that which already within us.