Quotes by Georges Bernanos

A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.
– Georges Bernanos
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
Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.
– Georges Bernanos
Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.
– Georges Bernanos
God ordains that beggars should beg for greatness, as for all else, when greatness shines out of them, and they don't know it.
– Georges Bernanos
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
It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.
– Georges Bernanos
It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.
– Georges Bernanos
No one ever discovers the depths of his own loneliness.
– Georges Bernanos
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
The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
– Georges Bernanos
The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.
– Georges Bernanos
The wish to pray is a prayer in itself. God can ask no more than that of us.
– Georges Bernanos
Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterward.
– Georges Bernanos
What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.
– Georges Bernanos
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
When you think of the huge uninterrupted success of a book like Don Quixote, you're bound to realize that if humankind have not yet finished being revenged, by sheer laughter, for being let down in their greatest hope, it is because that hope was cherished so long and lay so deep!
– Georges Bernanos
Who are you to condemn another's sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it.
– Georges Bernanos
Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.
– Georges Bernanos
Hope is a risk that must be run.
– Georges Bernanos
Hell, madam, is to love no longer.
– Georges Bernanos