“So long as a person is capable of self-renewal they are a living being.”
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Henri-Frédéric Amiel 50
Swiss philosopher and poet 1821–1881Related quotes

The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: Self, person, living being, and life span are four notions that prevent us from seeing reality.
Life is one. We do not need to slice it into pieces and call this or that piece a "self." What we call a self is made only of non-self elements. When we look at a flower, for example, we may think that it is different from "non-flower" things. But when we look more deeply, we see that everything in the cosmos is in that flower. Without all of the non-flower elements — sunshine, clouds, earth, minerals, heat, rivers, and consciousness — a flower cannot be. That is why the Buddha teaches that the self does not exist. We have to discard all distinctions between self and non-self.

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), Individual Culture, p. 261

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)
Context: We never get anywhere in this world without the forces of history and individual persons in the background helping us to get there. If you have the privilege of a fine education, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. If you have the privilege to gain wealth and a bit of the world’s goods, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. So don’t boast, don’t be arrogant. You, at that moment, rise out of your self-centeredness to the type of living that makes you an integrated personality.

New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)

“A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.”
pg 27
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part One: Lightness and Weight

“He was one of those rare men who are capable of being fully in love only once in their lives.”
Source: The Prince of Tides