To understand is to possess the thing understood, first by sympathy and then by intelligence.
Henri Frederic AmielDreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.
Henri Frederic AmielMen 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.
Henri Frederic AmielWe 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.
Henri Frederic AmielMan 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.
Henri Frederic Amiel