Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri Frédéric Amiel

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1891 - 318 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 168 - there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.
Page 289 - ... la prier, La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles Et nous laisse crier. Le pauvre en sa cabane, où le chaume le couvre, Est sujet à ses lois; Et la garde qui veille aux barrières du Louvre N'en défend point nos rois. De murmurer contre elle et perdre patience, II est mal à propos; Vouloir ce que Dieu veut est la seule science Qui nous met en repos.
Page xli - Christianity is above all religious, and 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.
Page xxix - To the old paths, my soul ! Oh, be it so ! I bear the workday burden of dull life About these footsore flags of a weary world, Heaven knows how long it has not been ; at once, Lo ! I am in the spirit on the Lord's day With John in Patmos. Is it not enough, One day in seven? and if this should go, If this pure solace should desert my mind, What were all else? I dare not risk this loss. To the old paths, my soul ! Sp.
Page 3 - Never to tire, never to grow cold ; to be patient, sympathetic, tender ; to look for the budding flower and the opening heart ; to hope always, like God ; to love always, — this is duty.
Page 244 - 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 304 - 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 182 - It is in the novel that the average vulgarity of German society, and its inferiority to the societies of France and England are most clearly visible. The notion of a thing's jarring on the taste is wanting to German aesthetics.
Page 9 - Reality, the present, the irreparable, the necessary, repel and even terrify me. I have too much imagination, conscience, and penetration, and not enough character. The life of thought alone seems to me to have enough elasticity and immensity, to be free enough from the irreparable ; practical life makes me afraid.
Page 177 - All that can be expected from the most perfect institutions is that they should make it possible for individual excellence to develop itself, not that they should produce the excellent individual.

Bibliographic information