Zitate von Francois Fénelon

Toutes les guerres sont civiles; car c'est toujours l'homme contre l'homme qui répand son propre sang, qui déchire ses propres entrailles.
Dialogues des morts, ch. 17, cited from De l'éducation des filles, Dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 149; translation from Mr. Elphingston (trans.) Dialogues of the Dead, Together with Some Fable Composed for the Education of a Prince (Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1754) vol. 1, p. 87. (1700).

„This is the love that does all things; that brings to pass even the evils we suffer; so shaping them that they are but instruments of preparing the good which, as yet, has not arrived.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 270.

„We may be sure that it is the love of God only that can make us come out of self. If His powerful hand did not sustain us, we should not know how to take the first step in that direction.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 270.

„Thou lovest like an infinite God when Thou lovest; Thou movest heaven and earth to save Thy loved ones. Thou becomest man, a babe, the vilest of men, covered with reproaches, dying with infamy and under the pangs of the cross; all this is not too much for an infinite love.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 271.

„God never makes us sensible of our weakness except to give us of His strength.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 283.

„Above all, do not allow yourself to be bewitched by the evil charms of geometry.“

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— François Fénelon

Sur-tout ne vous laissez point ensorceler par les attraits diaboliques de la géométrie.
Lettres Spirituelles, no. 59, cited from Correspondance de Fénelon, archevêque de Cambrai (Paris: Ferra Jeune, 1827) vol. 5, p. 514; translation from Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot (eds.) A History of Women in the West (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994) vol. 3, p. 405.Œuvres complètes De François de Salignac De La Mothe Fénélon. TOME V Briand 1810 LETTRE CXLII (142) p.106.

„The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our willing whatever God wills, always, in every thing, and without reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 269.

„True love goes ever straight forward, not in its own strength, but esteeming itself as nothing. Then indeed we are truly happy. The cross is no longer a cross when there is no self to suffer under it.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 396.

„I protest that no one admires Cicero more than I do. He enriches all that he touches.“

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— François Fénelon

Je proteste que personne n'admire Cicéron plus que je fais: il embellit tout ce qu’il touche.
Lettre sur les Occupations de l'Académie Française, sect. 4, cited from Œuvres de Fénelon (Paris: Lefèvre, 1835) vol. 3, p. 227; translation from Paul Bertie Bull Preaching and Sermon Construction (New York: Macmillan, 1922) p. 256. (1714)
Cf. Dr. Johnson's epitaph for Oliver Goldsmith: "…qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit, nullum quod tetigit non ornavit," ("…who left no species of writing untouched by his pen, and touched none that he did not adorn").

„There is but one way in which God should be loved, and that is to take no step except with Him and for Him, and to follow with a generous self-abandonment every thing which He requires.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 542.

„Peace treaties signed by the vanquished are not freely signed. Men sign with a knife at their throat, they sign in spite of themselves, in order to avoid still greater losses; they sign as men surrender their purse when it is a case of your money or your life.“

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— François Fénelon

Les traités de paix ne couvrent rien, lorsque vous êtes le plus fort, & que vous réduisez vos voisins à signer le traité pour éviter de plus grands maux: alors il signe comme un particulier donne sa bourse à un voleur qui lui tient le pistolet sur la gorge.
Directions pour la conscience d'un roi (Paris: Estienne, 1775) p. 60; translation by A. Lentin, cited from Margaret Lucille Kekewich (ed.) Princes and Peoples: France and the British Isles, 1620-1714 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994) p. 226. (c. 1694).

„As the reflections of our pride upon our defects are bitter, disheartening, and vexatious, so the return of the soul towards God is peaceful and sustained by confidence. You will find by experience how much more your progress will be aided by this simple, peaceful turning towards God, than by all your chagrin and spite at the faults that exist in you.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 566.

„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.“

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— François Fénelon

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 317.