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Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.

Georges Bernanos

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Georges Bernanos
Age: 60 †
Born: 1888
Born: February 20
Died: 1948
Died: July 5
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Librettist
Novelist
Writer
9th arrondissement
Paris
Bernanos
Mass
Civilization
Rather
May
Constitute
Enough
Alert
Never
Masses
Men
Precisely
Exists

More quotes by Georges Bernanos

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All her life she [Chantal] had been carefully, heroically watching over mediocre beings who were hardly real, over things of no value.
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The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
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Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.
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Fear, true fear, is a savage frenzy. Of all the insanities of which we are capable, it is surely the cruelest. There is naught to equal its drive, and naught can survive its thrust.
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Appearances are nothing.... And first of all they should not be feared, they are only dangerous to the weak.
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Optimism has always seemed to me the cunning alibi of egoists, anxious to cover up their state of chronic self-satisfaction. They are optimists in order to avoid pitying other men and their misfortune. ~~ Yet pity is a vexed question.
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You owe it to everyone you love to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world.
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What does it matter, all is grace.
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I can now see to the bottom of my own depths, there is nothing stopping my gaze, no obstacle is in the way. And there is nothing there.
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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.
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[T]he cradle is shallower than the grave.
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What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.
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To be able to share in another's joy, that is the secret of happiness.
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Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice?
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Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards.
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If hell has no answer for the questioning dead, it is not because it refuses to answer (for rigorous, alas, in observance, is the imperishable fire), but it is because hell has nothing to say, will say nothing eternally.
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The world is eaten up by boredom. You can't see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands.
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There is nothing that God hates so much as a liar.
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I have done no passably decent job in this world which did not at first seem to me useless - absurdly useless, useless to the point of nausea. My secret demon is called:: What's the use?
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Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.
Georges Bernanos