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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.
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
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University Teacher
Writer
Genève
Henri-Frederic Amiel
Henri Frédéric Amiel
Smile
Secret
Misunderstood
Understand
Bitterness
Great
Melancholy
Even
Cross
Men
Crosses
Life
Lips
Loves
More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel
Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
A man only understands what is akin to something already existing in himself.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct ... hold us to the earth and dictate the relatively good and useful.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
True humility is contentment.
Henri Frederic Amiel
As it is impossible to be outside God, the best is consciously to dwell in Him.
Henri Frederic Amiel
[T]he habit of scientific analysis ... exhausts the material offered to it.
Henri Frederic Amiel
The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
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
Time is but the measure of the difficulty of a conception. Pure thought has scarcely any need of time, since it perceives the two ends of an idea almost at the same moment.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
Common sense is the measure of the possible it is composed of experience and prevision it is calculation applied to life.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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
For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Hope is only the love of life.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.
Henri Frederic Amiel