Quote

Life is an apprenticeship to the constant renunciations, to the steady failure of our claims, our hopes, our powers, our liberty.

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
Renunciation
Steady
Hopes
Powers
Claims
Constant
Failure
Liberty
Apprenticeship

More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

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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.
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Every situation is an equilibrium of forces every life is a struggle between opposing forces working within the limits of a certain equilibrium
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The musician of the present day, not being able to give us what is beautiful, torments himself to give us what is new.
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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
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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
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Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear, undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light, and serenity.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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War is a brutal and fierce means of pacification it means the suppression of resistance by the destruction or enslavement of the conquered.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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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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A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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What governs men is the fear of truth.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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From every spot on earth we are equally near heaven and the infinite.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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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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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
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Pay bad people with your goodness fight their hatred with your kindness. Even if you do not achieve a victory over other people, you will conquer yourself.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart, in its cunning, quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamor within.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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Righteous ends, thus approved, absolve of guilt the most violent means.
Henri Frederic Amiel