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The Man Who Has No Inner-life Is A Slave To His Surroundings.
-Henri Frederic Amiel
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The Man Who Has

Henri Frederic Amiel
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The Man Who Has No Inner-life Is A Slave To His Surroundings.

Understanding the Quote: "the man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings...."

This quote by Henri Frederic Amiel reflects deeply on the theme of attitude. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Attitude, Positive Thinking, Men, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Henri Frederic Amiel interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Henri Frederic Amiel

Henri Frederic Amiel is celebrated for insightful thoughts on attitude and positive thinking. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Attitude
Positive Thinking
Men
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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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What Governs Men Is The Fear Of Truth.
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Music Is Harmony, Harmony Is Perfection, Perfection Is Our Dream, And Our Dream Is Heaven.
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We Are Never More Discontented With Others Than When We Are Discontented With Ourselves.
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The Man Who Insists Upon Seeing With Perfect Clearness Before He Decides, Never Decides. Accept Life, And You Must Accept Regret.
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It Is Not What He Had, Or Even What He Does Which Expresses The Worth Of A Man, But What He Is.
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Accept Life, And You Must Accept Regret.
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Man Never Knows What He Wants; He Aspires To Penetrate Mysteries And As Soon As He Has, Wants To Re-establish Them. Ignorance Irritates Him And Knowledge Cloys.
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Our True History Is Scarcely Ever Deciphered By Others. The Chief Part Of The Drama Is A Monologue, Or Rather An Intimate Debate Between God, Our Conscience, And Ourselves. Tears, Grieves, Depressions, Disappointments, Irritations, Good And Evil Thoughts, Decisions, Uncertainties, Deliberations --all These Belong To Our Secret, And Are Almost All Incommunicable And Intransmissible, Even When We Try To Speak Of Them, And Even When We Write Them Down.
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Doing Easily What Others Find Difficult Is Talent; Doing What Is Impossible For Talent Is Genius.
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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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I Am A Spectator, So To Speak, Of The Molecular Whirlwind Which Men Call Individual Life; I Am Conscious Of An Incessant Metamorphosis, An Irresistible Movement Of Existence, Which Is Going On Within Me - And This Phenomenology Of Myself Serves As A Window Opened Upon The Mystery Of The World.
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Christianity, If It Is To Triumph Over Pantheism, Must Absorb It. To Our Pusillanimous Eyes Jesus Would Have Borne The Marks Of A Hateful Pantheism, For He Confirmed The Biblical Phrase "ye Are Gods," And So Would St. Paul, Who Tells Us That We Are Of "the Race Of God." Our Century Wants A New Theology - That Is To Say, A More Profound Explanation Of The Nature Of Christ And Of The Light Which It Flashes Upon Heaven And Upon Humanity.
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Criticism Is Above All A Gift, An Intuition, A Matter Of Tact And Flair; It Cannot Be Taught Or Demonstrated--it Is An Art.
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There Is An Illusion Of Central Position, Justifying One's Own Purposes As Right And Everybody Else¹s As Wrong, And Providing A Proper Degree Of Paranoia. Righteous Ends, Thus Approved, Absolve Of Guilt The Most Violent Means.
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Justice
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To Know Where One Is Going And What One Wishes - This Is Order ... To Organize One's Life To Distribute One's Time ... All This Belong To And Is Included In The Word Order.
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It Would Have Been A Joy To Me To Be Smiled Upon, Loved, Encouraged, Welcomed, And To Obtain What I Was So Ready To Give, Kindness And Goodwill. But To Hunt Down Consideration And Reputation - To Force The Esteem Of Others - Seemed To Me An Effort Unworthy Of Myself, Almost A Degradation.
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Happiness Gives Us The Energy Which Is The Basis Of Health.
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We Are Always Making God Our Accomplice So That We May Legalize Our Own Inequities.
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Action And Faith Enslave Thought, Both Of Them In Order Not Be Troubled Or Inconvenienced By Reflection, Criticism, And Doubt.
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Clever People Will Recognize And Tolerate Nothing But Cleverness.
Clever
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Men Of Genius Supply The Substance Of History, While The Mass Of Men Are But The Critical Filter, The Limiting, Slackening, Passive Force Needed For The Modification Of Ideas Supplied By Genius.
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A Journal Takes The Place Of A Confidant, That Is, Of Friend Or Wife; It Becomes A Substitute For Production, A Substitute For Country And Public. It Is A Grief-cheating Device, A Mode Of Escape And Withdrawal; But, Factotum As It Is, Though It Takes The Place Of Everything, Properly Speaking It Represents Nothing At All.
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A Man Without Passion Is Only A Latent Force, Only A Possibility, Like A Stone Waiting For The Blow From The Iron To Give Forth Sparks.
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A Man Must Be Able To Cut A Knot, For Everything Cannot Be Untied; He Must Know How To Disengage What Is Essential From The Detail In Which It Is Enwrapped, For Everything Cannot Be Equally Considered; In A Word, He Must Be Able To Simplify His Duties, His Business And His Life.
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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.
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What We Call Little Things Are Merely The Causes Of Great Things; They Are The Beginning, The Embryo, And It Is The Point Of Departure Which, Generally Speaking, Decides The Whole Future Of An Existence. One Single Black Speck May Be The Beginning Of Gangrene, Of A Storm, Of A Revolution.
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Common Sense Is The Measure Of The Possible; It Is Composed Of Experience And Prevision; It Is Calculation Applied To Life.
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To Live We Must Conquer Incessantly, We Must Have The Courage To Be Happy.
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The Great Majority Of Men Are But Tangled Skeins, Imperfect Keyboards, So Many Specimens Of Restless Or Stagnant Chaos--and What Makes Their Situation Almost Hopeless Is The Fact That They Take Pleasure In It. There Is No Curing A Sick Man Who Believes Himself In Health.
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What We Call Little Things Are Merely The Causes Of Great Things; They Are The Beginning, The Embryo, And It Is The Point Of Departure Which, Generally Speaking, Decides The Whole Future Of An Existence. One Single Black Speck May Be The Beginning Of Gangrene, Of A Storm, Of A Revolution.
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A Belief Is Not True Simply Because It Is Useful.
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Man Is A Willful And Covetous Animal, Who Makes Use Of His Intellect To Satisfy His Inclinations, But Who Cares Nothing For Truth, Who Rebels Against Personal Discipline, Who Hates Disinterested Thought And The Idea Of Self-education. Wisdom Offends Him, Because It Rouses In Him Disturbance And Confusion, And Because He Will Not See Himself As He Is.
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Every Living Being Seeks Instinctively To Complete Itself.
From Every Spot On Earth We Are Equally Near Heaven And The Infinite.
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To Do What Is Impossible For Talent Is The Mark Of Genius.
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The Stationary Condition Is The Beginning Of The End
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There Is No Repose For The Mind Except In The Absolute; For Feeling, Except In The Infinite; For The Soul, Except In The Divine.
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So Long As A Person Is Capable Of Self-renewal They Are A Living Being. -henri
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I Wonder Whether I Should Gain Anything By The Attempt To Assume A Character Which Is Not Mine. My Wavering Manner, Born Of Doubt And Scruple, Has At Least The Advantage Of Rendering All The Different Shades Of My Thought, And Of Being Sincere. If It Were To Become Terse, Affirmative, Resolute, Would It Not Be A Mere Imitation?
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There Is No Respect For Others Without Humility In One's Self.
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Blessed Be Childhood, Which Brings Down Something Of Heaven Into The Midst Of Our Rough Earthliness.
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The Germs Of All Things Are In Every Heart, And The Greatest Criminals As Well As The Greatest Heroes Are But Different Modes Of Ourselves.
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Life Is But A Daily Oscillation Between Revolt And Submission.
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Put Personal Ambition Away From You, And Then You Will Find Consolation In Living Or In Dying, Whatever May Happen To You.
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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.
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Truth Is Not Only Violated By Falsehood; It May Be Equally Outraged By Silence.
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How True It Is That Our Destinies Are Decided By Nothings And That A Small Imprudence Helped By Some Insignificant Accident, As An Acorn Is Fertilized By A Drop Of Rain, May Raise The Trees On Which Perhaps We And Others Shall Be Crucified.
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Do Not Despise Your Situation; In It You Must Act, Suffer, And Conquer. From Every Point On Earth We Are Equally Near To Heaven And To The Infinite.
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The Obscure Only Exists That It May Cease To Exist. In It Lies The Opportunity Of All Victory And All Progress. Whether It Call Itself Fatality, Death, Night, Or Matter, It Is The Pedestal Of Life, Of Light, Of Liberty And The Spirit. For It Represents Resistance -- That Is To Say, The Fulcrum Of All Activity, The Occasion For Its Development And Its Triumph.
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Happiness Gives Us The Energy Which Is The Basis Of Health.
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To Feel Keenly The Poetry Of A Morning's Roses, One Has To Have Just Escaped From The Claws Of This Vulture Which We Call Sickness.
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We Become Actors Without Realizing It, And Actors Without Wanting To.
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At Bottom There Is But One Subject Of Study: The Forms And Metamorphoses Of Mind. All Other Subjects May Be Reduced To That; All Other Studies Bring Us Back To This Study.
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Self-interest Is An Inexhaustible Source Of Convenient Illusions. The Number Of Beings Who Wish To See Truly Is Extraordinarily Small.
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To Understand Is To Possess The Thing Understood, First By Sympathy And Then By Intelligence.
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Materialism Coarsens And Petrifies Everything, Making Everything Vulgar, And Every Truth False.
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Each Man Enters Into God So Much As God Enters Into Him.
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There Is Only One Way Of Not Hating Those Who Do Us Wrong, And That Is By Doing Them Good.
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Melancholy Is At The Bottom Of Everything, Just As At The End Of All Rivers Is The Sea. Can It Be Otherwise In A World Where Nothing Lasts, Where All That We Have Loved Or Shall Love Must Die? Is Death, Then, The Secret Of Life? The Gloom Of An Eternal Mourning Enwraps, More Or Less Closely, Every Serious And Thoughtful Soul, As Night Enwraps The Universe.
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Thankfulness Is The Beginning Of Gratitude. Gratitude Is The Completion Of Thankfulness. Thankfulness May Consist Merely Of Words. Gratitude Is Shown In Acts.
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For Purposes Of Action Nothing Is More Useful Than Narrowness Of Thought Combined With Energy Of Will.
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The Efficacy Of Religion Lies Precisely In What Is Not Rational, Philosophic, Nor Eternal; Its Efficacy Lies In The Unforeseen, The Miraculous, The Extraordinary. Thus Religion Attracts More Devotion According As It Demands More Faith - That Is To Say, As It Becomes More Incredible To The Profane Mind.
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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!
Race
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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.
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Action Is Coarsened Thought; Thought Becomes Concrete, Obscure, And Unconscious.
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We Are Always Making God Our Accomplice, That So We May Legalize Our Own Iniquities. Every Successful Massacre Is Consecrated By A Te Deum, And The Clergy Have Never Been Wanting In Benedictions For Any Victorious Enormity.
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Each Bud Flowers But Once And Each Flower Has But Its Minute Of Perfect Beauty; So, In The Garden Of The Soul Each Feeling Has, As It Were, Its Flowering Instant, Its One And Only Moment Of Expansive Grace And Radiant Kingship.
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Every Landscape Is, As It Were, A State Of The Soul, And Whoever Penetrates Into Both Is Astonished To Find How Much Likeness There Is In Each Detail.
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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.
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Criticism Is Above All A Gift, An Intuition, A Matter Of Tact And Flair; It Cannot Be Taught Or Demonstrated--it Is An Art.
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The Fire Which Enlightens Is The Same Fire Which Consumes.
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Man Becomes Man Only By His Intelligence, But He Is Man Only By His Heart.
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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.
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How True It Is That Our Destinies Are Decided By Nothings And That A Small Imprudence Helped By Some Insignificant Accident, As An Acorn Is Fertilized By A Drop Of Rain, May Raise The Trees On Which Perhaps We And Others Shall Be Crucified.
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A Man Must Be Able To Cut A Knot, For Everything Cannot Be Untied; He Must Know How To Disengage What Is Essential From The Detail In Which It Is Enwrapped, For Everything Cannot Be Equally Considered; In A Word, He Must Be Able To Simplify His Duties, His Business And His Life.
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Happiness Does Away With Ugliness, And Even Makes The Beauty Of Beauty.
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Ugliness
To Live We Must Conquer Incessantly, We Must Have The Courage To Be Happy.
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To Depersonalize Man Is The Dominant Drift Of Our Times.
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The Spirit Of Sarcasm Lives And Thrives In The Midst Of Universal Wreck; Its Balls Are Enchanted And Itself Invulnerable, And It Braves Retaliations And Reprisals Because Itself Is A Mere Flash, A Bodiless And Magical Nothing.
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Whenever Conscience Speaks With A Divided, Uncertain, And Disputed Voice, It Is Not The Voice Of God. Descend Still Deeper Into Yourself, Until You Hear Nothing But A Clear, Undivided Voice, A Voice Which Does Away With Doubt And Brings With It Persuasion, Light, And Serenity.
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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.
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Learn To... Be What You Are, And Learn To Resign With A Good Grace All That You Are Not.
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Uncertainty Is The Refuge Of Hope.
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Man Is A Passion Which Brings A Will Into Play, Which Works An Intelligence.
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Society Lives By Faith, And Develops By Science.
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Every Living Being Seeks Instinctively To Complete Itself.
As It Is Impossible To Be Outside God, The Best Is Consciously To Dwell In Him.
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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.
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A Microscopic Phantom Of The Universe; This Is All That We Are Able To Be.
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The Tragic Solemnity Of Existence Strikes Us With Terrible Force On That Morning When We Wake To Find The Mournful Words "too Late" Ringing In Our Ears.
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Mother Of Marvels, Mysterious And Tender Nature, Why Do We Not Live More In Thee.
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The Ideal Doctor Would Be A Man Endowed With Profound Knowledge Of Life And Of The Soul, Intuitively Divining Any Suffering Or Disorder Of Whatever Kind, And Restoring Peace By His Mere Presence.
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Love Is Faith And One Faith Leads To Another.
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If Nationality Is Consent, The State Is Compulsion.
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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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Before Crime Is Committed Conscience Must Be Corrupted, And Every Bad Man Who Succeeds In Reaching A High Point Of Wickedness Begins With This.
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Love Is Faith And One Faith Leads To Another.
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Time And Space Are Fragments Of The Infinite For The Use Of Finite Creatures.
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Space
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Philosophy Means The Complete Liberty Of The Mind.
Philosophy
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Mind
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.
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Attention
Worthy
As It Is Impossible To Be Outside God, The Best Is Consciously To Dwell In Him.
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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.
Love
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Relationship
Our Duty Is To Be Useful, Not According To Our Desires But According To Our Powers.
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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.
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Joy Is The Vital Air Of The Soul.
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Joy
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The Soul May Be Immortal Because She Is Fitted To Rise Towards That Which Is Neither Born Nor Dies, Towards That Which Exists Substantially, Necessarily, Invariably, That Is To Say Towards God.
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May
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Put Personal Ambition Away From You, And Then You Will Find Consolation In Living Or In Dying, Whatever May Happen To You.
Ambition
Dying
May
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Responsibility
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Before Giving Advice We Must Have Secured Its Acceptance, Or, Rather, Have Made It Desired.
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Giving
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Composition Is A Process Of Combination, In Which Thought Puts Together Complementary Truths, And Talent Fuses Into Harmony The Most Contrary Qualities Of Style. So That There Is No Composition Without Effort, Without Pain Even, As In All Bringing Forth. The Reward Is The Giving Birth To Something Living--something, That Is To Say, Which, By A Kind Of Magic, Makes A Living Unity Out Of Such Opposed Attributes As Orderliness And Spontaneity, Thought And Imagination, Solidity And Charm.
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Writing
Giving
Time Is The Supreme Illusion. It Is But The Inner Prism By Which We Decompose Being And Life, The Mode Under Which We Perceive Successively What Is Simultaneous In Idea.
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Ideas
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Hope Is Only The Love Of Life.
Life
Hope
Anticipation
A Journal Takes The Place Of A Confidant, That Is, Of Friend Or Wife; It Becomes A Substitute For Production, A Substitute For Country And Public. It Is A Grief-cheating Device, A Mode Of Escape And Withdrawal; But, Factotum As It Is, Though It Takes The Place Of Everything, Properly Speaking It Represents Nothing At All.
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The Ideal, After All, Is True Than The Real: For The Ideal Is The Eternal Element In Perishable Things.
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Elements
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The Mind Must Have For Ballast The Clear Conception Of Duty, If It Is Not To Fluctuate Between Levity And Despair.
Mind
Despair
Levity
To Be Always Ready A Man Must Be Able To Cut A Knot, For Everything Cannot Be Untied.
Cutting
Men
Simplicity
Doubt Is The Accomplice Of Tyranny.
Doubt
Tyranny
Accomplices
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.
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Religion Is Not A Method, It Is A Life, A Higher And Supernatural Life, Mystical In Its Root And Practical In Its Fruits; A Communion With God, A Calm And Deep Enthusiasm, A Love Which Radiates, A Force Which Acts, A Happiness Which Overflows.
Roots
Religion
Enthusiasm
Emancipation From Error Is The Condition Of Real Knowledge.
Atheist
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The Best Path Through Life Is The Highway.
Path
Life Is
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The Beautiful Souls Of The World Have An Art Of Saintly Alchemy, By Which Bitterness Is Converted Into Kindness, The Gall Of Human Experience Into Gentleness, Ingratitude Into Benefits, Insults Into Pardon.
Beautiful
Art
Kindness
To Learn New Habits Is Everything, For It Is To Reach The Substance Of Life. Life Is But A Tissue Of Habits.
Life
Substance
Tissues
To Know How To Suggest Is The Great Art Of Teaching. To Attain It We Must Be Able To Guess What Will Interest; We Must Learn To Read The Childish Soul As We Might A Piece Of Music. Then, By Simply Changing The Key, We Keep Up The Attraction And Vary The Song.
Song
Teacher
Art
A Woman Is Sometimes Fugitive, Irrational, Indeterminable, Illogical And Contradictory. A Great Deal Of Forbearance Ought To Be Shown Her, And A Good Deal Of Prudence Exercised With Regard To Her, For She May Bring About Innumerable Evils Without Knowing It. Capable Of All Kinds Of Devotion, And Of All Kinds Of Treason, Monster Incomprehensible, Raised To The Second Power, She Is At Once The Delight And The Terror Of Man.
Women
Knowing
Evil
Destiny Has Two Ways Of Crushing Us - By Refusing Our Wishes And By Fulfilling Them.
Crush
Fate
Destiny
When Everything Has Its Proper Place In Our Minds, We Are Able To Stand In Equilibrium With The Rest Of The World.
Mind
World
Able
Thought Is A Kind Of Opium; It Can Intoxicate Us, While Still Broad Awake; It Can Make Transparent The Mountains And Everything That Exists.
Thinking
Mountain
Kind
For Purposes Of Action Nothing Is More Useful Than Narrowness Of Thought Combined With Energy Of Will.
Inspirational
Life
Success
Happiness Has No Limits, Because God Has Neither Bottom Nor Bounds, And Because Happiness Is Nothing But The Conquest Of God Through Love.
Happiness
Limits
Bottom
The Ideal Doctor Would Be A Man Endowed With Profound Knowledge Of Life And Of The Soul, Intuitively Divining Any Suffering Or Disorder Of Whatever Kind, And Restoring Peace By His Mere Presence.
Health
Men
Medical Knowledge
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.
Music
Ocean
Blessed
Destiny Has Two Ways Of Crushing Us - By Refusing Our Wishes And By Fulfilling Them.
Crush
Fate
Destiny
Analysis Kills Spontaneity. The Grain Once Ground Into Flour Springs And Germinates No More.
Spring
Creativity
Analysis
Order Is A Great Person's Need And Their True Well Being.
Order
Needs
Great Person
Each Man Enters Into God So Much As God Enters Into Him.
Men
Woman Is The Salvation Or The Destruction Of The Family. She Carries Its Destiny In The Folds Of Her Mantle.
Mom
Mother
Destiny
Each Bud Flowers But Once And Each Flower Has But Its Minute Of Perfect Beauty; So, In The Garden Of The Soul Each Feeling Has, As It Were, Its Flowering Instant, Its One And Only Moment Of Expansive Grace And Radiant Kingship.
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Garden
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Any Landscape Is A Condition Of The Spirit.
Landscape
Spirit
American Landscape
Sadness Takes Up The Pen More Readily Than Joy.
Sadness
Joy
Pens
Self-interest Is But The Survival Of The Animal In Us. Humanity Only Begins For Man With Self-surrender.
Animal
Men
Self
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.
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Moon
Shining
To Do What Is Impossible For Talent Is The Mark Of Genius.
Genius
Impossible
Talent
It Gives Liberty And Breadth To Thought, To Learn To Judge Our Own Epoch From The Point Of View Of Universal History, History From The Point Of View Of Geological Periods, Geology From The Point Of View Of Astronomy.
Views
Judging
Giving
Liberty, Equality - Bad Principles! The Only True Principle For Humanity Is Justice; And Justice To The Feeble Is Protection And Kindness.
Kindness
Compassion
Equality
A Musical Theme Once Exhausted, Finds Its Due Refuge And Repose In Silence.
Silence
Musical
Exhausted
The History Of Man Is Essentially Zoological; It Becomes Human Late In The Day, And Then Only In The Beautiful Souls, The Souls Alive To Justice, Goodness, Enthusiasm, And Devotion. The Angel Shows Itself Rarely And With Difficulty Through The Highly-organized Brute.
Beautiful
Angel
Men
What We Do Not Understand We Have No Right To Judge
Judging
Time Is But The Space Between Our Memories; As Soon As We Cease To Perceive This Space, Time Has Disappeared.
Memories
Space
Perceive
To Be Misunderstood Even By Those Whom One Loves Is The Cross And Bitterness Of Life. It Is The Secret Of That Sad And Melancholy Smile On The Lips Of Great Men Which So Few Understand.
Love Is
Men
Misunderstood
Sacrifice, Which Is The Passion Of Great Souls, Has Never Been The Law Of Societies.
Passion
Sacrifice
Law
Cleverness Is Serviceable For Everything, Sufficient For Nothing.
Clever
Intelligence
Cleverness
Charm Is The Quality In Others That Makes Us More Satisfied With Ourselves.
Love
Inspirational
Quality
Oh Be Swift To Live, Make Haste To Be Kind.
Kindness
Haste
Be Kind
Latent Genius Is But A Presumption. Everything That Can Be, Is Bound To Come Into Being, And What Never Comes Into Being Is Nothing.
Genius
Latent
Presumption
The Soul May Be Immortal Because She Is Fitted To Rise Towards That Which Is Neither Born Nor Dies, Towards That Which Exists Substantially, Necessarily, Invariably, That Is To Say Towards God.
Soul
May
Born
A Man Only Understands What Is Akin To Something Already Existing In Himself.
Men
Understanding
To Repel One's Cross Is To Make It Heavier.
Responsibility
Crosses
There Are 2 Sorts Of Pride: One In Which We Approve Others, The Other In Which We Cannot Accept Ourselves.
Pride
Accepting
Men Prefer The False Due To Habit, Passion, Will. Preference For Truth Is Rare. Men Are Ruled By Their Fear Of Truth.
Passion
Men
Truth Is
Common Sense Is Calculation Applied To Life.
Common Sense
Common
Calculations
Time Is The Supreme Illusion. It Is But The Inner Prism By Which We Decompose Being And Life, The Mode Under Which We Perceive Successively What Is Simultaneous In Idea.
Time
Ideas
Illusion
About Jesus We Must Believe No One But Himself.
Jesus
Believe
I Am A Spectator, So To Speak, Of The Molecular Whirlwind Which Men Call Individual Life; I Am Conscious Of An Incessant Metamorphosis, An Irresistible Movement Of Existence, Which Is Going On Within Me - And This Phenomenology Of Myself Serves As A Window Opened Upon The Mystery Of The World.
Life
Men
World
There Is No Curing A Sick Man Who Believes Himself To Be In Health.
Believe
Health
Men
Common Sense Is The Measure Of The Possible.
Common Sense
Common
Prevision
Learn To... Be What You Are, And Learn To Resign With A Good Grace All That You Are Not.
Being Yourself
Inspiration
Being Single
A Modest Garden Contains, For Those Who Know How To Look And To Wait, More Instruction Than A Library.
Education
Learning
Knowledge
Obstinacy Is Will Asserting Itself Without Being Able To Justify Itself. It Is Persistence Without A Reasonable Motive. It Is The Tenacity Of Self-love Substituted For That Of Reason And Conscience.
Love
Persistence
Self
To Be Misunderstood Even By Those Whom One Loves Is The Cross And Bitterness Of Life. It Is The Secret Of That Sad And Melancholy Smile On The Lips Of Great Men Which So Few Understand; It Is The Cruelest Trial Reserved For Self-devotion; It Is What Must Have Oftenest Wrung The Heart Of The Son Of Man; And If God Could Suffer, It Would Be The Wound We Should Be Forever Inflicting Upon Him. He Also - He Above All - Is The Great Misunderstood, The Least Comprehended.
Heart
Son
Love Is
Peace Is Not In Itself A Dream, But We Know It Only As The Result Of A Momentary Equilibrium--an Accident.
Dream
Peace
Results
The Growth And Development Of The Soul Is More Important Than Power And Glory.
Soul
Growth
Important
The Man Who Has No Inner-life Is A Slave To His Surroundings.
Attitude
Positive Thinking
Men
Time And Space Are Fragments Of The Infinite For The Use Of Finite Creatures.
Time
Space
Use
Only Evil Grows Of Itself, While For Goodness We Want Effort And Courage.
Evil
Effort
Want
Analysis Kills Spontaneity.
Life
Art
Philosophy
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.
Interesting
Attention
Worthy
Let The Living Live; And You, Gather Together Your Thoughts, Leave Behind You A Legacy Of Feeling And Ideas; You Will Be Most Useful So.
Life
Ideas
Feelings
Truth Above All, Even When It Upsets Us And Overwhelms Us.
Upset
The Musician Of The Present Day, Not Being Able To Give Us What Is Beautiful, Torments Himself To Give Us What Is New.
Beautiful
Giving
Musician
The Immense Majority Of Our Species Are Candidates For Humanity, And Nothing More.
Humanity
Majority
Species
Order Is Man's Greatest Need, And His True Well-being.
Men
Order
Needs
Before Giving Advice We Must Have Secured Its Acceptance, Or, Rather, Have Made It Desired.
Acceptance
Giving
Advice
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.
Independent
Independence
Desire
The Growth And Development Of The Soul Is More Important Than Power And Glory.
Soul
Growth
Important
Any Landscape Is A Condition Of The Spirit.
Landscape
Spirit
American Landscape
The Test Of Every Religious, Political, Or Educational System Is The Man That It Forms.
Religious
Educational
Men
Faith Is Certitude Without Proofs ... Faith Is A Sentiment, For It Is A Hope; It Is An Instinct, For It Precedes All Outward Instruction.
Faith
Instinct
Proof
To Win True Peace, A Man Needs To Feel Himself Directed, Pardoned, And Sustained By A Supreme Power, To Feel Himself In The Right Road, At The Point Where God Would Have Him Be - In Order With God And The Universe. This Faith Gives Strength And Calm.
Men
Winning
Order
The History Of Man Is Essentially Zoological; It Becomes Human Late In The Day, And Then Only In The Beautiful Souls, The Souls Alive To Justice, Goodness, Enthusiasm, And Devotion. The Angel Shows Itself Rarely And With Difficulty Through The Highly-organized Brute.
Beautiful
Angel
Men
The Laws Of Animality Govern Almost The Whole Of History.
Law
Whole
Dreams Are Excursions Into The Limbo Of Things, A Semi-deliverance From The Human Prison.
Dream
Deliverance
Prison
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.
Inspirational
Teacher
Teaching
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.
Art
Truth
Secret
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