Henri Frédéric Amiel

Amiel, Henri-Frédéric (1821-81). Professor of aesthetics and subsequently of philosophy at Geneva, Amiel was a poet and perceptive literary critic, but his reputation rests on his incomparable Journal intime, a monument of Romantic introspection. The act of writing helped to preserve the sense of personal identity in the face of the relentless onrush of time. Extracts from this vast undertaking first appeared in print in 1883. A complete critical edition of the text is currently being published (eight volumes, covering the period 1839-72, each of over 1, 000 pages, had appeared by 1991). Amiel offers a detailed and probing form of self-analysis. He questions the stability of the self and the nature of its relation to the world, exploring the Romantic themes of loss and failure, flux and permanence, contemplation and action. In these pages we witness a hypersensitive mind turning inward and engaging in a dialogue with itself, investigating the processes of thought and their relation to the body. In addition to the insights drawn from self-analysis, the Journal is also valuable for its discussion of literature, history, philosophy, and religion.

[Ceri Crossley]

Quotes:

"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."

"The best path through life is the highway."

"Destiny has two ways of crushing us -- by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them."

"Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius."

"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."

"It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well."

See more famous quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel