Georges Bernanos Quotes

Quotes about:

• To be able to share in another's joy, that is the secret of happiness.

  Georges Bernanos

  Happiness, Happy, Joy

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• The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

  Georges Bernanos

  Mean, Tyrants, Deception

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

  Georges Bernanos

  Teamwork, Peace, Flower

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• It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.

  Georges Bernanos

  Pride, Order, Excellence

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.224, Da Capo Press

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• Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

  Georges Bernanos

  Faith, Literature, Shapes

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.122, Da Capo Press

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• ...the most dangerous shortsightedness consists in underestimating the mediocre.

  Georges Bernanos

  Underestimate, Mediocre, Dangerous

  Georges Bernanos (1944). “Plea for Liberty: Letters to the English, the Americans, the Europeans”

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• Hope is a risk that must be run.

  Georges Bernanos

  Inspirational, Running, Hope

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• You owe it to everyone you love to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world.

  Georges Bernanos

  Pockets, World, Busy

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• Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice? Let us rather call it injustice, but of a sly effective order, based entirely on cruel knowledge of the resistance of the weak, their capacity for pain, humilation and misery. Injustice sustained at the exact degree of necessary tension to turn the cogs of the huge machine-for-the-making-of-rich-men, without bursting the boiler.

  Georges Bernanos

  Pain, Powerful, Men

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• The world is eaten up by boredom. You can't see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands.

  Georges Bernanos

  Dust, Hands, Bores You

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.2, Da Capo Press

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• The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.

  Georges Bernanos

  Prayer, Wish, Praying

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.103, Da Capo Press

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• Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards.

  Georges Bernanos

  Truth, Comfort, Firsts

  "Diary of a Country Priest".

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• Sadness came into the world with Satan - that world our Saviour never prayed for, the world you say I do not know. Oh, it is not so difficult to recognize: it is the world that prefers cold to warmth! What can God find to say to those who, of their own free will, of their own weight incline towards sadness and turn instinctively towards the night?

  Georges Bernanos

  Sadness, Night, World

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• A man given to vice is always an idealist.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Vices, Given

  Georges Bernanos (2000). “Monsieur Ouine”, p.61, U of Nebraska Press

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• A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.

  Georges Bernanos

  Wisdom, Inspiration, Doe

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Civilization, May

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• The devil, you see, is that friend who never stays with us to the end.

  Georges Bernanos

  Devil, Ends

  Georges Bernanos (2000). “Monsieur Ouine”, p.171, U of Nebraska Press

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• The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.

  Georges Bernanos

  Rights, Doe, Literature

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• Hell, madame, is to love no longer.

  Georges Bernanos

  Love, Friendship, Friendship Love

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• God! how is it that we fail to recognize that the mask of pleasure, stripped of all hypocrisy, is that of anguish?

  Georges Bernanos

  Hypocrisy, Failing, Mask

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• A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Needs, Poverty

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.62, Da Capo Press

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• Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.

  Georges Bernanos

  Punishment, Doe, Needs

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.126, Da Capo Press

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• I know the compassion of others is a relief at first. I don't despise it. But it can't quench pain, it slips through your soul as through a sieve. And when our suffering has been dragged from one pity to another, as from one mouth to another, we can no longer respect or love it.

  Georges Bernanos

  Love, Pain, Compassion

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.261, Da Capo Press

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• [A] good Christian does not care for miracles very much, because a miracle is God looking after His own affairs, and we prefer looking after them for Him.

  Georges Bernanos

  Christian, Miracle, Doe

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

  Georges Bernanos

  Believe, Optimism, Virtue

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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