“He is one of a crowd, a taxpayer, an elector, an anonymity, but not a man.Source: Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel
“Thought means life, since those who do not think so do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man
“For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense
“Men long for an afterlife in which there apparently is nothing to do but delight in heaven's wonders
“The boundary between civilization and barbarism is difficult to draw: put one ring in your nose and you are a savage, put two rings in your ears and you are civilized.
“Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more
“There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live
“Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach
“People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind as surgeons are to their bodily pains
“After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change
“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world
“Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further
“It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite
“There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify - so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish
“Are there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.