Quotes by 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.”

“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence”

“Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven”

“We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.”

“In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.”

“Im not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. Youre as old as you feel.”

“Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy”

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

“The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.”

“The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms”

“True humility is contentment.”

“Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make ones own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.”

“Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring...”

“To marry unequally is to suffer equally.”

“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”

“A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt.”

“Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death. There is no real piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious con”

“Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!”

“Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.”

“Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.”