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Men of genius supply the substance of history, while the mass of men are but the critical filter, the limiting, slackening, passive force needed for the modification of ideas supplied by genius.
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
Men
Substance
Critical
Supplied
Mass
Modification
Genius
Filter
Needed
Limiting
Force
Filters
History
Supply
Ideas
Passive
More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel
To understand is to possess the thing understood, first by sympathy and then by intelligence.
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I am a spectator, so to speak, of the molecular whirlwind which men call individual life I am conscious of an incessant metamorphosis, an irresistible movement of existence, which is going on within me - and this phenomenology of myself serves as a window opened upon the mystery of the world.
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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.
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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.
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For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
True humility is contentment.
Henri Frederic Amiel
[T]he habit of scientific analysis ... exhausts the material offered to it.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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.
Henri Frederic Amiel
The germs of all things are in every heart, and the greatest criminals as well as the greatest heroes are but different modes of ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
I do not deny the rights of democracy, but I have no illusions as to the uses that will be made of those rights so long as wisdom is rare and pride abundant
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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
Every man is a priest, even involuntarily his conduct is an unspoken sermon, which is forever preaching to others.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Joy is the vital air of the soul.
Henri Frederic Amiel
The laws of animality govern almost the whole of history.
Henri Frederic Amiel
When everything is in its right place within us, we ourselves are in balance with the whole work of God.
Henri Frederic Amiel
The musician of the present day, not being able to give us what is beautiful, torments himself to give us what is new.
Henri Frederic Amiel
If ignorance and passion are the foes of popular morality, it must be confessed that moral indifference is the malady of the cultivated classes.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Doubt of the reality of love ends by making us doubt everything.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
Henri Frederic Amiel