Quotes by "Henri Frederic Amiel"

To repel one's cross is to make it heavier.

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

We must have the courage to be happy.

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.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied.

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.

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

For purposes of action, nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

How, then, find the courage for action?... By accepting the human condition more simply and candidly, by dreading troubles less, calculating less, hoping more.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

Unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct ... hold us to the earth and dictate the relatively good and useful.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour germinates no more.

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

Man is a passion which brings a will into play, which works an intelligence.

A man only understands what is akin to something already existing in himself.

The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings.

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

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat; that is progress.