Category: Amiel
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Henri Frederic Amiel on the French Mind
From The Private Journal of Henri Frederic Amiel, tr. Brooks and Brooks (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1935), pp. 428-429: 22 December 1874. Written in the South of France. – Gioberti says that the French mind assumes only the form of truth and, by isolating this, exaggerates it, in such a way that it dissolves…
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Amiel Blames the Absolute for his Maladjustment
Henri-Frederic Amiel, journal entry of 12 September 1861: I think the Absolute has rendered you forever incapable of attaching yourself to relative things . . . .
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Amiel on Duty
“Duty has the virtue of making us feel the reality of a positive world while at the same time detaching us from it.” (See here.) This is a penetrating observation, and a nearly perfect specimen of the aphorist’s art. It is terse, true, but not trite. The tip of an iceberg of thought, it invites…