Quote

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.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Force
Sparks
Give
Shock
Without
Iron
Giving
Forth
Men
Passionate
Flint
Like
Mere
Awaits
Possibility
Latent
Passion
Spark

More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

Image
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
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.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Doubt of the reality of love ends by making us doubt everything.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
The great majority of men are but tangled skeins, imperfect keyboards, so many specimens of restless or stagnant chaos--and what makes their situation almost hopeless is the fact that they take pleasure in it. There is no curing a sick man who believes himself in health.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind, and therefore independence of all social, political or religious prejudice... It loves one thing only... truth.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Hope is only the love of life.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Righteous ends, thus approved, absolve of guilt the most violent means.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
There is an illusion of central position, justifying one's own purposes as right and everybody else¹s as wrong, and providing a proper degree of paranoia. Righteous ends, thus approved, absolve of guilt the most violent means.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Do not despise your situation in it you must act, suffer, and conquer. From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
The immense majority of our species are candidates for humanity, and nothing more.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
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.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh - over fear...Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Image
Philosophy starts with doubt and loves only truth.
Henri Frederic Amiel