Francois Fenelon Quotes.
The greatest of all crosses is self. If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. These little daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.
The more you say, the less people remember.
Carefully purify your conscience from daily faults; suffer no sin to dwell in your heart; small as it may seem, it obscures the light of grace, weighs down the soul, and hinders that constant communion with Jesus Christ which it should be your pleasure to cultivate.
Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.
God is so good that He only awaits our desire to overwhelm us with the gift of himself.
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God; and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.
Nothing is so costly as the pursuit of a cure for imaginary ills.
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.
God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him
A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.
A general rule for the good use of time is to accustom oneself to live in a continual dependence on the Spirit of God.
Let gratitude for the past inspire us with trust for the future.
Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.
No more restless uncertainties, no more anxious desires, no more impatience at the place we are in; for it is God who has placed us there, and who holds us in his arms. Can we be unsafe where he has placed us?
The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of other people.
Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.
Let us pray God that He would root out of our hearts every thing of our own planting, and set out there, with His own hands, the tree of life, bearing all manner of fruits.
You can often help others more by correcting your own faults than theirs. Remember, and you should, because of your own experience, that allowing God to correct your faults is not easy. Be patient with people, wait for God to work with them as He wills.
Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies.
There is nothing that is more dangerous to your own salvation, more unworthy of God and more harmful to your own happiness, than that you should be content to remain as you are.
Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
How can you expect God to speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul, when you are making so much noise with your rapid reflections? Be silent and God will speak again.
All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.
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.
