Extended excerpt [Journal entry]:

“Man defends himself as much as he can against truth, as a child does against a medicine, as the man of the Platonic cave does against the light. He does not willingly follow his path, he has to be dragged along backwards. This natural liking for the false has several causes: the inheritance of prejudices, which produces an unconscious habit, a slavery; the predominance of the imagination over the reason, which affects the understanding; the predominance of the passions over the conscience, which depraves the heart; the predominance of the will over the intelligence, which vitiates the character. A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism and doubt.” (p. 407)

Source: Editor’s copy – The Private Journal of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (22 Jan. 1874 journal entry – book edition 1935) New York, Macmillan Co. – Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 1258402

Extended excerpt [Journal entry]:

“Liberty raises us to the gods; holiness prostrates us on the ground. Action limits us; whereas in the state of contemplation we are endlessly expansive. Will localizes us; thought universalizes us.” (p. 208)

Source link: Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=snippet&q=%22Action%20limits%20us%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [None. Journal entry – written as a single aphorism]:

“An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.”

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books:: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22An%20error%20is%20the%20more%20dangerous%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [Journal entry]:

“To understand a drama requires the same mental operation as to understand an existence, a biography, a man. It is a putting back of the bird into the egg, of the plant into its seed, a reconstitution of the whole genesis of the being in question. Art is simply the bringing into relief of the obscure thought of nature; a simplification of the lines, a falling into place of groups otherwise invisible. The fire of inspiration brings out, as it were, designs traced beforehand in sympathetic ink. The mysterious grows clear, the confused plain; what is complicated becomes simple – what is accidental, necessary. In short, art reveals nature by interpreting its intentions and formulating its desires. Every ideal is the key of a long enigma. The great artist is the simplifier.” (p. 122)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22Art%20is%20simply%22&f=false

Extended excerpt [Journal entry]:

“Clever men will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness; every authority rouses their ridicule, every superstition amuses them, every convention moves them to contradiction. Only force finds favor in their eyes, and they have no toleration for anything that is not purely natural and spontaneous. And yet ten clever men are not worth one man of talent, nor ten men of talent worth one man of genius. And in the individual, feeling is more than cleverness, reason is worth as much as feeling, and conscience has it over reason. If, then, the clever man is not mockable, he may at least be neither love, nor considered, nor esteemed. He may make himself feared, it is true, and force others to respect his independence; but his negative advantage, which is the result of a negative superiority, brings no happiness with it. Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.” (p. 206)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Charm+is+the+quality%22#v=onepage&q=%22Clever%20men%20will%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [Journal entry – Ellipsis original to translated text]:

“Later. – What dupes we are of our own desires! …Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wises and by fulfilling them. But he who only wills what God wills escapes both catastrophes. ‘All things work together for his good.’’ (p. 471)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Charm+is+the+quality%22#v=onepage&q=%22destiny%20has%20two%20ways%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [Journal entry]:

“Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh – that is to say, over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of sickness, of isolation, and of death. There is no serious piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.” (p. 6)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22Heroism%20is%20the%20dazzling%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [Journal entry – Punctuation & spelling original to translated text.]:

“Serious and solemn words come naturally to the man who feels life escaping him, and the grave opening before him. The depths of his nature are then revealed; the Divine within him need no longer hide itself. Oh! do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative towards those we love until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened with death! Life is short, and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh! be swift to love, make haste to be kind!” (p. 226)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22Life%20is%20short%22&f=false

Extended excerpt [None – written as a single aphorism]:

“Spite is anger which is afraid to show itself, it is an impotent fury conscious of its impotence.”

Source Note: The journal entry above did not appear in the first English edition of Amiel’s Journal. In her preface to this second edition, translator Mary Ward notes that she “inserted a good many new passages, taken from the last French edition.”

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=jt0QAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5&dq=Spite+is+anger+which+is+afraid

Extended excerpt [Journal entry]:

“Liberty, equality – bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice, and justice towards the feeble becomes necessarily protection or kindness.” (p. 143)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Charm+is+the+quality%22#v=onepage&q=%22The%20only%20true%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [Journal entry]:

“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, ennobles, and raises him. The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man which it forms. If a system injures the intelligence it is bad. If it injures the character it is vicious. If it injures the conscience it is criminal.” (pp. 39-40)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=PA40&dq=every+religious+political+or+educational+system+is+the+man+which+it+forms#v=onepage&q=The%20test%20of%20every%20religious%2C%20political%20or%20educational%20system&f=false

Extended excerpt  [None – written as a single aphorism in Amiel’s journal.]:

“To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.” (p. 86)

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22To%20do%20easily%22&f=false

Extended excerpt  [None – written as a single aphorism]:

“To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

Source link: [Accessed June 2015] Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1885 English translation) Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WUJcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Action+limits+us%22#v=onepage&q=%22To%20know%20how%20to%20grow%22&f=false