Quote

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

Henri Frederic Amiel

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Henri Frederic Amiel
Age: 59 †
Born: 1821
Born: September 27
Died: 1881
Died: May 11
Diarist
Literary Critic
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Genève
Henri-Frederic Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amiel
Life
Accept
Accepting
Seeing
Upon
Clearness
Perfect
Insists
Must
Decides
Never
Regret
Men
Perfection

More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

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Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
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Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.
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To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand.
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Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.
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What governs men is the fear of truth.
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The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair.
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Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
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Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures.
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A musical theme once exhausted, finds its due refuge and repose in silence.
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Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.
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The only substance properly so called is the soul.
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Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.
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Man is saved by love and duty, and by the hope that springs from duty, or rather from the moral facts of consciousness, as a flower springs from the soil.
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You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
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An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
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Self-interest is an inexhaustible source of convenient illusions. The number of beings who wish to see truly is extraordinarily small.
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To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.
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Unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct ... hold us to the earth and dictate the relatively good and useful.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Henri Frederic Amiel