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Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.

— Henri-Frédéric Amiel Journal Intime (1882)

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Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.

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Truth

More quotes by Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Happiness has no limits, because God has neither bottom nor bounds, and because happiness is nothing but the conquest of God through love.

Journal Intime (1882)

Knowledge, love, power,—there is the complete life.

Journal Intime (1882)

Liberty, equality — bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble becomes necessarily protection or kindness.

Journal Intime (1882)

The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings.

Journal Intime (1882)

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

Journal Intime (1882)

All Henri-Frédéric Amiel quotes →

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You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

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False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

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I believe in evil. It is the property of all those who are certain of truth. Despair and fanaticism are only differing manifestations of evil.

Edward Teller

Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.

Ulysses S. Grant Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henri-Frédéric Amiel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.