Quote

The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair.

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
Conception
Despair
Duty
Clear
Must
Mind
Fluctuate
Ballast
Levity

More quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

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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.
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Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.
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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.
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For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.
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What we call little things are merely the causes of great things.
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I find myself regarding existence as though from beyond the tomb, from another world all is strange to me I am, as it were, outside my own body and individuality I am depersonalized, detached, cut adrift. Is this madness?
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Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it has cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but keeps you warm for a long time.
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Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.
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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.
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Doing easily what others find difficult is talent doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
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It would have been a joy to me to be smiled upon, loved, encouraged, welcomed, and to obtain what I was so ready to give, kindness and goodwill. But to hunt down consideration and reputation - to force the esteem of others - seemed to me an effort unworthy of myself, almost a degradation.
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We are all visionaries, and what we see is our soul in things.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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As it is impossible to be outside God, the best is consciously to dwell in Him.
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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
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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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There is only one way of not hating those who do us wrong, and that is by doing them good.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.
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Liberty, equality - bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.
Henri Frederic Amiel
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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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What governs men is the fear of truth.
Henri Frederic Amiel