Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Philosopher, Author

1821 – 1881

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Who was Henri-Frédéric Amiel?

Henri Frédéric Amiel was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic.

Born in Geneva in 1821, he was descended from a Huguenot family driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

After losing his parents at an early age, Amiel travelled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe, and made a special study of German philosophy in Berlin. In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy. These appointments, conferred by the democratic party, deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party, which comprised nearly all the culture of the city.

This isolation inspired the one book by which Amiel is still known, the Journal Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation. It was translated into English by Mary A. Ward at the instigation of Mark Pattison.

Although modest in volume of output, Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his Journal gained a sympathy that the author had failed to obtain in his life. In addition to the Journal, he produced several volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael and other writers. He died in Geneva.

Famous Quotes:

  • Common sense is calculation applied to life.
  • The best path through life is the highway.
  • Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
  • Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.
  • The obscure only exists that it may cease to exist. In it lies the opportunity of all victory and all progress. Whether it call itself fatality, death, night, or matter, it is the pedestal of life, of light, of liberty and the spirit. For it represents resistance -- that is to say, the fulcrum of all activity, the occasion for its development and its triumph.
  • Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary -- they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.
  • An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
  • Action is coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.
  • Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.
  • Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.

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Born
Sep 28, 1821
Geneva
Also known as
  • Henri-Frederic Amiel
Nationality
  • Switzerland
Profession
Died
May 11, 1881
Geneva

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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