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

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Macmillan and Company, 1885 - Authors, Swiss - 487 pages

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Page 245 - there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.
Page 437 - ... 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 167 - 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 lii - 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 xxxi - 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 11 - He who is silent is forgotten ; he who abstains is taken at his word ; he who does not advance, falls back ; he who stops is overwhelmed, distanced, crushed ; he who ceases to grow greater becomes smaller ; he who leaves off, gives up ; the stationary condition is the beginning of the end — it is the terrible symptom which precedes death.
Page lxii - Whether we will or no, there is an esoteric doctrine — there is a relative revelation; each man enters into God so much as God enters into him ; or, as Angelus, I think, said, " The eye by which I see God is the same eye by which He sees me.
Page 48 - The centre of life is neither in thought, nor in feeling, nor in will, nor even in consciousness, so far as it thinks, feels, or wishes. For moral truth may have been penetrated and possessed in all these ways, and escape us still. Deeper even than consciousness there is our being itself, our very substance, our nature. Only those truths which have entered into this last region, which have become ourselves, become spontaneous and involuntary, instinctive and unconscious, are really our life — that...
Page lx - 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 23 - What is threatened to-day is moral liberty, conscience, respect for the soul, the very nobility of man. To defend the soul, its interests, its rights, its dignity, is the most pressing duty for whoever sees the danger. What the writer, the teacher, the pastor, the philosopher, has to do, is to defend humanity in man. Man ! the true man, the ideal man ! Such should be their motto, their rallying cry. War to all that debases, diminishes, hinders, and degrades him ; protection for all that fortifies,...

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