Georges Bernanos Quotes - Page 2

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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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• 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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• There is nothing that God hates so much as a liar.

  Georges Bernanos

  Hate, Liars

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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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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• [P]ride has no intrinsic substance, being no more than the name given to the soul devouring itself. When that loathsome perversion of love has borne its fruit, it has another, more meaningful and weightier name. We call it hatred.

  Georges Bernanos

  Meaningful, Names, Hatred

  Georges Bernanos (1999). “The Impostor”, p.156, U of Nebraska Press

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• Who are you to condemn another's sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it.

  Georges Bernanos

  Sin

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.139, Da Capo Press

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• Appearances are nothing.... And first of all they should not be feared, they are only dangerous to the weak.

  Georges Bernanos

  Firsts, Appearance, Weak

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• What does the truth matter? Haven't we mothers all given our sons a taste for lies, lies which from the cradle upwards lull them, reassure them, send them to sleep: lies as soft and warm as a breast!

  Georges Bernanos

  Mother, War, Lying

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.154, Da Capo Press

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• But I shall give less thought to the future, I shall work in the present. I feel such work is within my power. For I only succeed in small things, and when I am tried by anxiety, I am bound to say it is the small joys that release me.

  Georges Bernanos

  Giving, Joy, Anxiety

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.293, Da Capo Press

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• Lust is a mysterious wound in the side of humanity; or rather, at the very source of its life! To confound this lust in man with that desire which unites the sexes is like confusing a tumor with the very organ which it devours, a tumor whose very deformity horribly reproduces the shape.

  Georges Bernanos

  Sex, Men, Humanity

  Georges Bernanos, Pamela Morris (1975). “The diary of a country priest”

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• Rather than the obsession with impurity, you'd do better to fear the nostalgia for purity.

  Georges Bernanos

  Nostalgia, Obsession, Purity

  Georges Bernanos (2000). “Monsieur Ouine”, p.213, U of Nebraska Press

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• I have just discovered something I have always known: we can no more escape from one another than we can escape from God.

  Georges Bernanos

  Known

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.

  Georges Bernanos

  Fear, Men, Bravery

  Georges Bernanos (1962). “The Diary of a Country Priest”

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• I don't think we can ever learn much from ultra-sensitive, shifty faces, skilled in disguise, that hide themselves in lust, as beasts hide to die.

  Georges Bernanos

  Thinking, Lust, Faces

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.124, Da Capo Press

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• Suicide only really frightens those who are never tempted by it and never will be, for its darkness only welcomes those who are predestined to it.

  Georges Bernanos

  Suicide, Darkness, Tempted

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• Optimism has always seemed to me the cunning alibi of egoists, anxious to cover up their state of chronic self-satisfaction. They are optimists in order to avoid pitying other men and their misfortune. ~~ Yet pity is a vexed question.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Self, Order

  Georges Bernanos (1938). “A diary of my times”

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• Chantal's only ruse ... was her shattering simplicity. While a weak man or an imposter is always more complicated than the problem he is trying to solve, and thinking to encompass his adversary, merely keeps prowling interminably around himself, the heroic nature will throw itself into the heart of the danger to turn it to its own use, just as captured artillery is turned about and aimed at the backs of the fleeing enemy.

  Georges Bernanos

  Heart, Men, Thinking

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• To you a pious young girl who goes to mass and communion, seems pretty silly and childish; you take us for innocents... Well, let me tell you, sometimes we know more about evil than people who have only learned to offend God.

  Georges Bernanos

  Girl, Silly, People

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• I have done no passably decent job in this world which did not at first seem to me useless - absurdly useless, useless to the point of nausea. My secret demon is called:;: What's the use?

  Georges Bernanos

  Jobs, Secret, Use

  Georges Bernanos (1938). “A Diary of My Times”

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• Fact is Our Lord knew all about the power of money: He gave capitalism a tiny niche in His scheme of things, He gave it a chance, He even provided a first installment of funds. Can you beat that? It's so magnificent. God despises nothing. After all, if the deal had come off, Judas would probably have endowed sanatoriums, hospitals, public libraries or laboratories.

  Georges Bernanos

  Library, Tiny, Firsts

  Georges Bernanos (1974). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, Doubleday Books

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• Fear, true fear, is a savage frenzy. Of all the insanities of which we are capable, it is surely the cruelest. There is naught to equal its drive, and naught can survive its thrust.

  Georges Bernanos

  Insanity, Savages, Anticipation

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• [T]he cradle is shallower than the grave.

  Georges Bernanos

  Cradle, Graves

  Georges Bernanos (2000). “Monsieur Ouine”, p.244, U of Nebraska Press

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• First of all, be what you are.

  Georges Bernanos

  "'La joie' ('Joy')". Book by Georges Bernanos, p. 213, 1929.

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• When writing of oneself one should show no mercy. Yet why at the first attempt to discover one's own truth does all inner strength seem to melt away in floods of self-pity and tenderness and rising tears?

  Georges Bernanos

  Writing, Self, Inner Strength

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.8, Da Capo Press

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• Only the present counts.

  Georges Bernanos

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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