Quotes by French Authors - Page 14

To do all that one is able to do is to be a man to do all that one would like to do is to be a god.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections.
Saint Francis de Sales
At thirty a man should know himself like the palm of his hand know the exact number of his defects and qualities. ... And above all accept these things.
Albert Camus
One must not hope to be more than one can be.
Nicolas de Chamfort
The punishment of criminals should be of use when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
Voltaire
The public! the public! How many fools does it take to make up a public?
Sebastien Chamfort
Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.
Vauvenargues
Property is theft.
Proudhon
Progress - the stride of God!
Victor Hugo
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is.
Voltaire
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step but you have to take it.
Antoine De Saint Exupery
It so happens that the world is undergoing a transformation to which no change that has yet occurred can be compared either in scope or in rapidity.
Charles de Gaulle
That which comes into the world to disturb nothing deserves neither respect nor patience.
René Char
The infinitely little have pride infinitely great.
Voltaire
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.
François Fénelon
The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying not What a lovely sermon but I will do something!
St. Francis de Sales
Prayer like radium is a luminous and self-generating form of energy.
Dr. Alexis Carrel
What I dislike least in my former self are the moments of prayer.
André Gide
Our rages daughters of despair creep and squirm like worms. Prayer is the only form of revolt which remains upright.
Georges Bernanos
To pray together in whatever tongue or ritual is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that man can contract in this life.
Madame de Stael
Prayer is a cry of distress a demand for help a hymn of love.
Dr. Alexis Carrel
Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.
Blaise Pascal
When we pray we link ourselves with an inexhaustible motive power.
Dr. Alexis Carrel
The influence of prayer on the human mind and body ... can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy greater intellectual vigor moral stamina and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationships.
Dr. Alexis Carrel
The answer of our prayers is secured by the fact that in rejecting them God would in a certain sense deny His own nature.
John Calvin
He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Help yourself and heaven will help you.
Jean de La Fontaine
The Ancient Mariner said to Neptune during a great storm "O God you will save me if you wish but I am going to go on holding my tiller straight."
Michel de Montaigne
I would have no desire other than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray pray thyself in me.
Francois de Fenelon
A little lifting of the heart suffices a little remembrance of God one act of inward worship are prayers which however short are nevertheless acceptable to God.
Brother Lawrence
With God there is no need for long speeches.
Jane Frances de Chantal
In prayer more is accomplished by listening than by talking.
Jane Frances de Chantal
We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity speak to Him frankly and plainly and implore His assistance in our affairs.
Brother Lawrence
God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.
Voltaire
I pray like a robber asking alms at the door of a farmhouse to which he is ready to set fire.
Léon Bloy
Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely lovingly confidently and simply as your heart dictates.
Jane Frances de Chantal
The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries. After that he can sleep.
Charles Baudelaire
Time spent in prayer is never wasted.
Francois de Fenelon
Those who always pray are necessary to those who never pray.
Victor Hugo
You need not cry very loud he is nearer to us than we think.
Brother Lawrence
Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician I have seen men after all other therapy had failed lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.
Dr. Alexis Carrel
Even if no command to pray had existed our very weakness would have suggested it.
Francois de Fenelon
Prayer is an end to isolation. It is living our daily life with someone with him who alone can deliver us from solitude.
Georges Lefevre
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
La Rochefoucauld
I would have praised you more had you praised me less.
Louis XIV
We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a Pasha or a Sultan who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.
Voltaire
There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.
Michel de Montaigne
Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.
Jean de La Fontaine
Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.
André Gide
The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Short of genius a rich man cannot imagine poverty.
Charles Péguy
The better I get to know men the more I find myself loving dogs.
Charles de Gaulle
Success produces success just as money produces money.
Nicolas de Chamfort
When we have not what we love we must love what we have.
Roger de Rabutin
What we love we shall grow to resemble.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Think like a man of action act like a man of thought.
Henri Bergson
There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.
Napoléon Bonaparte
My center is giving way my right is in retreat: situation excellent. I am attacking.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch
Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.
René Descartes