Quotes by Henri Frédéric Amiel

“It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly 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.””

“all appears to change when we change””

“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.””

“Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.””

“At the bottom of the modern man there is always a great thirst for self-forgetfulness, self-distraction; he has a secret horror of all which makes him feel his own littleness; the eternal, the infinite, perfection, therefore scare and terrify him. He wishes to approve himself, to admire and congratulate himself; and therefore he turns away from all those problems and abysses which might recall to him his own nothingness.””

“Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.””

“Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.””

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

“Time is but the space between our memories; as soon as we cease to perceive this space, time has disappeared.””

“I begin to realize that my memory is a great catacomb, and that below my actual standing-ground there is layer after layer of historical ashes. Is the life of mind something like that of great trees of immemorial growth? Is the living layer of consciousness super-imposed upon hundreds of dead layers? Dead? No doubt this is too much to say, but still, when memory is slack the past becomes almost as though it had never been. To remember that we did know once is not a sign of possession but a sign of loss; it is like the number of an engraving which is no longer on its nail, the title of a volume no longer to be found on its shelf. My mind is the empty frame of a thousand vanished images.””

“What is it which has always come between real life and me? What glass screen has, as it were, interposed itself between me and the enjoyment, the possession, the contact of things, leaving me only the role of the looker-on?””

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

“Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.””