Quotes by Georges Bernanos

Lust is a mysterious wound in the side of humanity; or rather, at the very source of its life! To confound this lust in man with that desire which unites the sexes is like confusing a tumor with the very organ which it devours, a tumor whose very deformity horribly reproduces the shape.

Suicide only really frightens those who are never tempted by it and never will be, for its darkness only welcomes those who are predestined to it.

We priests are sneered at and always shall be—the accusation is such an easy one—as deeply envious, hypocritical haters of virility. Yet whosoever has experienced sin must know that lust, with its parasitic growth, is for ever threatening to stifle virility as well as intelligence. Impotent to create, it can only contaminate in the germ the frail promise of humanity; it is probably at the very source, the primal cause of all human blemishes; and when amid the windings of this huge jungle whose paths are unknown, we encounter Lust, just as she is, as she emerged forth from the hands of the Master of Prodigies, the cry from our hearts is not only terror but imprecation: You, you alone have set death loose upon the world!

I have no ambition to change my nature, I merely intend to conquer my dislikes.

Fear true fear is a savage frenzy. Of all the insanities of which we are capable it is surely the most cruel.

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.

Hell madame is to love no longer.

Hope is a risk that must be run.

Our rages daughters of despair creep and squirm like worms. Prayer is the only form of revolt which remains upright.

A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.

Hell, madam, is to love no longer.

It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.

Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.