Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1856)

Analysis kills spontaneity.

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

Liberty, equality - bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.

All appears to change when we change.

Hope is only the love of life.

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

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

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

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.

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.

Learn to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and 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.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

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

An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains.

The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.

Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and life.

...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.