Francois de Fenelon Quotes
A French Roman Catholic theologian, poet and writer. He today is remembered mostly as one of the main advocates of quietism and as the author of The adventures of Telemachus, a thinly veiled attack on the French monarchy, first published in 1699.
(1651 - 1715)
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A good discourse is that from which one can take nothing without taking the life.
[Preaching]
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A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.
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A man's style is nearly as much a part of himself as his face, or figure, or the throbbing of his pulse; in short, as any part of his being which is subjected to the action of his will.
[Style]
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All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.
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All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
[War]
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Beware of fatiguing them by ill-judged exactness. - If virtue offers itself to the child under a melancholy and constrained aspect, while liberty and license present themselves under an agreeable form, all is lost, and your labor is in vain.
[Children]
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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.
[Children]
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Courage is a virtue only so far as it is directed by prudence.
[Courage]
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Despondency is not a state of humility. - On the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride; nothing is worse. - Whether we stumble, or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.
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Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.
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Even if no command to pray had existed, our very weakness would have suggested it.
[Prayer]
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Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
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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.
[Brevity]
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God, who is liberal in all his other gifts, shows us, by the wise economy of his providence, how circumspect we ought to be in the management of our time, for he never gives us two moments together.
[Time]
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Good taste rejects excessive nicety; it treats little things as little things, and is not hurt by them.
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Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.
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I believe that we are conforming to the divine order and the will of Providence when we are doing even indifferent things that belong to our condition.
[Duty]
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I love my country better than my family; but I love humanity better than my country.
[Humanity]
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I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother.
[Preaching]
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I would have no desire other than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray; pray thyself in me.
[Prayer]
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