Francois Fenelon Quotes (22 Quotes)

Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.

The past but lives in written words a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips.

The best use one can make of his mind is to distrust it

Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.

A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

It is only by fidelity in little things that the grace of true love to God can be sustained, and distinguished from a passing fervor of spirit.... No one can well believe that our piety is sincere, when our behavior is lax and irregular in its little details. What probability is there that we should not hesitate to make the greatest sacrifices, when we shrink from the smallest.

Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.

The art of cookery is the art of poisoning mankind, by rendering the appetite still importunate, when the wants of nature are supplied

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, it's pleasures, and it's pains, to a dear friend. Tell him your troubles, that he may comfort you tell him your joys, that he may sober them tell him your longings, that he may purify them tell him your dislikes, that he may help you coquer them talk to him of your temptations, that he may shield you from them show him the wounds of your heart, that he may heal them lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others. If you thus pour out your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back, neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of their heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.

Mankind, by the perverse depravity of their nature, esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed, and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach

If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate.

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.

Little opportunities should be improved.

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.

'When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth' If He should now come, would He find it in us What fruits of faith have we to show Do we look upon this life only as a short passage to a better Do we believe that we must suffer with Jesus Christ before we can reign with Him Do we consider this world as a deceitful appearance, and death as the entrance to true happiness Do we live by faith Does it animate us Do we relish the eternal truths it presents us with Are we as careful to nourish our souls with those truths as to maintain our bodies with proper diet Do we accustom ourselves to see all things in the light of faith Do we correct all our judgments by it Alas The greater part of Christians think and act like mere heathens if we judge (as we justly may) of their faith by their practice, we must conclude they have no faith at all.

Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies.

There were some who said that a man at the point of death was more free than all others, because death breaks every bond, and over the dead the united world has no power

Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.

There is a great difference between a lofty spirit and a right spirit. A lofty spirit excites admiration by its profoundness but only a right spirit achieves salvation and happiness by its stability and integrity. Do not conform your ideas to those of the world. Scorn the 'intellectual' as much as the world esteems it. What men consider intellectual is a certain facility to produce brilliant thoughts. Nothing is more vain. We make an idol of our intellect as a woman who believes herself beautiful worships her face. We take pride in our own thoughts. We must reject not only human cleverness, but also human prudence, which seems so important and so profitable. Then we may enter like little children, with candor and innocence of worldly ways into the simplicity of faith and with humility and a horror of sin we may enter into the holy passion of the cross.