209 Quotes by François Fénelon

Oh! how seldom the soul is silent, in order that God may speak.

Our piety must be weak and imperfect if it do not conquer our fear of death.

If we were faultless, we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate. If we were to acknowledge honestly that we have not virtue enough to bear patiently with our neighbor's weaknesses, we should show our own imperfection, and this alarms our vanity.

The passion of acquiring riches in order to support a vain expense corrupts the purest souls.

The greatest defect of common education is, that we are in the habit of putting pleasure all on one side, and weariness on the other; all weariness in study, all pleasure in idleness.

This poor world, the object of so much insane attachment, we are about to leave; it is but misery, vanity, and folly; a phantom--the very fashion of which "passeth away.

The great point is to renounce your own wisdom by simplicity of walk, and to be ready to give up the favor, esteem, and approbation of every one, whenever the path in which God leads you passes that way.

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.

Be content with doing calmly the little which depends upon yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not.