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I Find Myself Regarding Existence As Though From Beyond The Tomb, From Another World; All Is Strange To Me; I Am, As It Were, Outside My Own Body And Individuality; I Am Depersonalized, Detached, Cut Adrift. Is This Madness?

-Henri Frederic Amiel

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I Find Myself Regarding

Henri Frederic Amiel

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I Find Myself Regarding Existence As Though From Beyond The Tomb, From Another World; All Is Strange To Me; I Am, As It Were, Outside My Own Body And Individuality; I Am Depersonalized, Detached, Cut Adrift. Is This Madness?

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Without Passion Man Is A Mere Latent Force And Possibility, Like The Flint Which Awaits The Shock Of The Iron Before It Can Give Forth Its Spark.

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Action Is Coarsened Thought; Thought Becomes Concrete, Obscure, And Unconscious.

We Only Understand That Which Already Is Within Us.

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What We Do Not Understand We Have No Right To Judge

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Self-interest Is But The Survival Of The Animal In Us. Humanity Only Begins For Man With Self-surrender.

The Laws Of Animality Govern Almost The Whole Of History.

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The Philosopher Aspires To Explain Away All Mysteries, To Dissolve Them Into Light. Mystery On The Other Hand Is Demanded And Pursued By The Religious Instinct; Mystery Constitutes The Essence Of Worship, The Power Of Proselytism.

A Musical Theme Once Exhausted, Finds Its Due Refuge And Repose In Silence.

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To Depersonalize Man Is The Dominant Drift Of Our Times.

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Happiness Has No Limits, Because God Has Neither Bottom Nor Bounds, And Because Happiness Is Nothing But The Conquest Of God Through Love.

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Joy Is The Vital Air Of The Soul.

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When Everything Is In Its Right Place Within Us, We Ourselves Are In Balance With The Whole Work Of God.

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Nothing Finite Is True, Is Interesting, Is Worthy To Fix My Attention. All That Is Particular Is Exclusive, And All That Is Exclusive Repels Me.

Our Dependence Outweighs Our Independence, For We Are Independent Only In Our Desire, While We Are Dependent On Our Health, On Nature, On Society, On Everything In Us And Outside Us.

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An Error Is The More Dangerous In Proportion To The Degree Of Truth Which It Contains.

A Modest Garden Contains, For Those Who Know How To Look And To Wait, More Instruction Than A Library.

The Unfinished Is Nothing.

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The Stationary Condition Is The Beginning Of The End

One May Guess The Why And Wherefore Of A Tear And Yet Find It Too Subtle To Give Any Account Of. A Tear May Be The Poetical Resume Of So Many Simultaneous Impressions, The Quintessence Of So Many Opposing Thoughts! It Is Like A Drop Of One Of Those Precious Elixirs Of The East Which Contain The Life Of Twenty Plants Fused Into A Single Aroma.

Society Lives By Faith, And Develops By Science.

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Whatever Impatience We May Feel Towards Our Neighbor, And Whatever Indignation Our Race May Rouse In Us, We Are Chained One To Another, And, Companions In Labour And Misfortune, Have Everything To Lose By Mutual Recrimination And Reproach. Let Us Be Silent As To Each Other's Weakness, Helpful, Tolerant, Many, Tender Towards Each Other! Or, If We Cannot Feel Tenderness, May We At Least Feel Pity!

Happiness Gives Us The Energy Which Is The Basis Of Health.

The Stationary Condition Is The Beginning Of The End

There Is Only One Way Of Not Hating Those Who Do Us Wrong, And That Is By Doing Them Good.

About Jesus We Must Believe No One But Himself.

Joy Is The Vital Air Of The Soul.

Thankfulness Is The Beginning Of Gratitude. Gratitude Is The Completion Of Thankfulness. Thankfulness May Consist Merely Of Words. Gratitude Is Shown In Acts.

Our Life Is Nothing, It Is True, But Our Life Is Divine. A Breath Of Nature Annihilates Us, But We Surpass Nature In Penetrating Far Beyond Her Vast Phantasmagoria To The Changeless And The Eternal.

Nothing Finite Is True, Is Interesting, Is Worthy To Fix My Attention. All That Is Particular Is Exclusive, And All That Is Exclusive Repels Me.

Woman Is The Salvation Or The Destruction Of The Family. She Carries Its Destiny In The Folds Of Her Mantle.

Nothing Is More Characteristic Of A Man Than The Manner In Which He Behaves Toward Fools.

I Have Never Felt Any Inward Assurance Of Genius, Or Any Presentiment Of Glory Or Of Happiness. I Have Never Seen Myself In Imagination Great Or Famous, Or Even A Husband, A Father, An Influential Citizen. This Indifference To The Future, This Absolute Self-distrust, Are, No Doubt, To Be Taken As Signs. What Dreams I Have Are All Vague And Indefinite; I Ought Not To Live, For I Am Now Scarcely Capable Of Living.

What Governs Men Is The Fear Of Truth.

Philosophy Means The Complete Liberty Of The Mind, And Therefore Independence Of All Social, Political Or Religious Prejudice... It Loves One Thing Only... Truth.

Hope Is Only The Love Of Life.

Sacrifice, Which Is The Passion Of Great Souls, Has Never Been The Law Of Societies.

True Humility Is Contentment.

Time Is But The Space Between Our Memories; As Soon As We Cease To Perceive This Space, Time Has Disappeared.

Are We Not All Shipwrecked,...condemned To Death?... However Impatient Our Neighbours Make Us, However Much Indignation Our Race Arouses, We Are All Bound Together, And The Companions Of A Chain-gang Have Everything To Lose By Mutual Insults.

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