Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Volume 2 |
From inside the book
Page 8
I cannot persuade myself to believe it possible for an instant . I see infirmity and weakness close upon me , I feel I cannot do without affection , and I know that I have no ambi- tion , and that my faculties are declining .
I cannot persuade myself to believe it possible for an instant . I see infirmity and weakness close upon me , I feel I cannot do without affection , and I know that I have no ambi- tion , and that my faculties are declining .
Page 46
He refuses to believe in the new man , in any real progress towards perfection , or in any positive improvement in a human being . Only the appearances are refined ; there is no change below the surface . Perhaps he confuses temperament ...
He refuses to believe in the new man , in any real progress towards perfection , or in any positive improvement in a human being . Only the appearances are refined ; there is no change below the surface . Perhaps he confuses temperament ...
Page 49
What , then , do I believe in ? I do not know . And what is it I hope for ? It would be difficult to say . - Folly ! I believe in goodness , and I hope that good will prevail . Deep within this ironical and disappointed being of mine ...
What , then , do I believe in ? I do not know . And what is it I hope for ? It would be difficult to say . - Folly ! I believe in goodness , and I hope that good will prevail . Deep within this ironical and disappointed being of mine ...
Page 59
Such is the creed of the human race . Nature will be conquered by spirit : the eternal will triumph over time . - 1st April 1870. — I am inclined to believe AMIEL'S JOURNAL . 59.
Such is the creed of the human race . Nature will be conquered by spirit : the eternal will triumph over time . - 1st April 1870. — I am inclined to believe AMIEL'S JOURNAL . 59.
Page 60
I am inclined to believe that for a woman love is the supreme au- thority that which judges the rest and decides what is good or evil . For a man , love is subordinate to right . It is a great passion , but it is not the source of order ...
I am inclined to believe that for a woman love is the supreme au- thority that which judges the rest and decides what is good or evil . For a man , love is subordinate to right . It is a great passion , but it is not the source of order ...
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Common terms and phrases
able action beauty become beginning believe better bring called Christianity Church clear comes common conscience consciousness critic death desire divine doubt dream duty effect equality eternal everything evil existence experience expression eyes fact faith feel force give happiness harmony heart hope human idea ideal illusion imagination impression individual infinite intellectual interest judge justice kind leaves less liberty living look March matter means mind moral nature ness never object once one's oneself original passes passion peace perfection perhaps philosophy possess possible principle pure race reality reason religion religious rest result seems sense side society soul speak spirit suffering things thought tion true truth turn understand universal whole wisdom wish
Popular passages
Page 64 - there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.
Page 234 - Chacun se réveille à ce son, Les Brebis, le Chien, le Garçon. Le pauvre Loup, dans cet esclandre, Empêché par son hoqueton, Ne put ni fuir ni se défendre. Toujours par quelque endroit fourbes se laissent prendre. Quiconque est Loup agisse en Loup : C'est le plus certain de beaucoup.
Page 362 - Entre toutes les différentes expressions qui peuvent rendre une seule de nos pensées, il n'y en a qu'une qui soit la bonne. On ne la rencontre pas toujours en parlant ou en écrivant ; il est vrai néanmoins qu'elle existe, que tout ce qui ne l'est point est faible, et ne satisfait point un homme d'esprit qui veut se faire entendre.
Page 360 - M'a dessillé les yeux, et me les vient d'ouvrir. Je vois, je sais, je crois, je suis désabusée...
Page 191 - We must treat our subject brutally and not be always trembling lest we should be doing it a wrong. We must be able to transmute and absorb it into our own substance. This sort of confident effrontery is beyond me ; my whole nature tends to that impersonality which respects and subordinates itself to the object; it is love of truth which holds me back from concluding and deciding.
Page 359 - The courses of nature, and the prodigious injustices of man in society, affect him with neither horror nor awe. He will see no monster if he can help it.
Page 348 - March 21, 1881. — This invalid life is too Epicurean. For five or six weeks now I have done nothing else but wait, nurse myself, and amuse myself, and how weary one gets of it ! What I want is work. It is work which gives flavor to life. Mere existence without object and without effort is a poor thing. Idleness leads to languor, and languor to disgust.
Page 216 - I have been thinking a great deal of Victor Cherbuliez. Perhaps his novels make up the most disputable part of his work, — they are so much wanting in simplicity, feeling, reality. And yet what knowledge, style, wit, and subtlety — how much thought everywhere, and what mastery of language ! He astonishes one ; I cannot but admire him. Cherbuliez's mind is of immense range, clear-sighted, keen, full of resource ; he is an Alexandrian exquisite, substituting for the feeling which makes men earnest...
Page 117 - The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair. Before giving advice we must have secured its acceptance, or rather, have made it desired. If we begin by overrating the being we love, we shall end by treating it with wholesale injustice. It is dangerous to abandon oneself to the luxury of grief ; it deprives one of courage, and even of the wish for recovery.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Volume 2 Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Henri Frédéric Amiel Issue 11 of Macmillan's miniature series |
| Author | Henri Frédéric Amiel |
| Publisher | Macmillan & Company, 1896 |
| Original from | the New York Public Library |
| Digitized | 10 Mar 2007 |
| Length | 402 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |