Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amielwas a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 September 1821
CountrySwitzerland
persistence self able
Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify itself. It is persistence without a reasonable motive. It is the tenacity of self-love substituted for that of reason and conscience.
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.
difficult easily impossible others talent
Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for others is genius.
soul suffering witness
Its way of suffering is the witness which a soul bares to itself.
motivational fitness freedom
In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.
passion men iron
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.