Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frederic Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amielwas a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 September 1821
CountrySwitzerland
science able finals
True poetry is truer than science, because it is synthetic, and seizes at once what the combination of all the sciences is able, at most, to attain as a final result.
science conscience
Society rests upon conscience, not upon science.
science scientific-method analysis
[T]he habit of scientific analysis ... exhausts the material offered to it...
science class mind
[I]t is truth alone-scientific, established, proved, and rational truth-which is capable of satisfying nowadays the awakened minds of all classes. We may still say perhaps, 'faith governs the world,'-but the faith of the present is no longer in revelation or in the priest-it is in reason and in science.
science common-sense experience
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
soul suffering witness
Its way of suffering is the witness which a soul bares to itself.
capable living
So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being.
exercises faith inevitable life profession silent
Every life is a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
action becomes
Action is only coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
crushing destiny fate fulfilling refusing ways wishes
Destiny has two ways of crushing us -- by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.
Tell me what you think you are and I will tell you what you are not
action both criticism faith liking order persistent troubled truth
A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt.
french passion thirst truth
The thirst for truth is not a French passion
according duty
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.