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

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

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

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
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

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

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Order is a great person's need and their true well being.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Order is power.
Henri Frederic Amiel

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

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
Henri Frederic Amiel

So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Society lives by faith, and develops by science.
Henri Frederic Amiel