Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821–81) was a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic.
Born in Geneva, Amiel lost his parents at an early age. He traveled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe, and made a unique study of German philosophy in Berlin. He became a professor of aesthetics (1849) and moral philosophy (1853–81) at the Academy of Geneva.
Amiel published some essays and poems, but his fame as an intellectual and a critic rest on his diaries (1847 onwards,) published posthumously as Journal in Time (1883; Private Journal.) British writer Mary Augusta Ward, at the suggestion of academic Mark Pattison, translated it into English.
More: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Henri Frederic Amiel
Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one’s own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
It is not what he has, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Perseverance, Self-Discovery, Self-improvement, Progress
Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Crying
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Selfishness, Self-interest
A woman is sometimes fugitive, irrational, indeterminable, illogical and contradictory. A great deal of forbearance ought to be shown her, and a good deal of prudence exercised with regard to her, for she may bring about innumerable evils without knowing it. Capable of all kinds of devotion, and of all kinds of treason, monster incomprehensible, raised to the second power, she is at once the delight and the terror of man.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Women
Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Truth, Integrity
Every dawn signs a new contract with existence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Self-Discovery
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Communication
Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Intellectuals, Intelligence
Action is but coarsened thought; thought become concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Action
So long as a person is capable of self-renewal, he is a living being.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Love, Change
We must dare to be happy, and dare to confess it, regarding ourselves always as the depositories, not as the authors of our own joy.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Our dependence outweighs our independence, for we are independent only in our desire, while we are dependent on our health, on nature, on society, on everything in us and outside us.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Man
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
A belief is not true because it is useful.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Belief
Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary—they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Greatness, Greatness & Great Things
Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Intelligence
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Action
How, then, find the courage for action? By slipping a little into unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct which holds one to the earth and dictates the relatively good and useful … By accepting the human condition more simply, and candidly, by dreading troubles less, calculating less, hoping more.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Courage
Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults—a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Belief
Oh, order! Material order, intellectual order, moral order! What a comfort and strength, and what an economy! To know where we are going and what we want; that is order. To keep ones word, to do the right thing, and at the right time: more order. To have everything under ones hand, to put ones whole army through its manoeuvres, to work with all ones resources: still order. To discipline ones habits and efforts and wishes, to organize ones life and distribute ones time, to measure ones duties and assert ones rights, to put ones capital and resources, ones talents and opportunities to profit: again and always order. Order is light, peace, inner freedom, self-determination: it is power. To conceive order, to return to order, to realize order in oneself, around oneself, by means of oneself, this is aesthetic and moral beauty, it is well-being, it is what ought to be.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Happiness, Courage
Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
—Henri Frederic Amiel
Topics: Intelligence
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Philosopher
- Carl Gustav Jung Swiss Psychologist
- Johann Kaspar Lavater Swiss Christian Poet
- Jean Antoine Petit-Senn Swiss Poet
- Hermann Hesse German-born Swiss Poet
- Karl Barth Swiss Protestant Theologian
- Alberto Giacometti Swiss Sculptor
- Jean-luc Godard French-born Swiss Film Director
- Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Swiss Educator
- Ralph Waldo Emerson American Philosopher