Quotes

Learn to limit yourself; to content yourself with some definite work; dare to be what you are and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not; and to believe in your own individuality.

Henri Frederic Amiel

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Henri Frederic Amiel

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

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Henri Frederic Amiel

If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.

Henri Frederic Amiel

I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.

Henri Frederic Amiel

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

Henri Frederic Amiel

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

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty.

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

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Henri Frederic Amiel