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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.

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
Order
Cover
Pitying
States
Optimism
Optimists
Self
Pity
Chronic
Always
Satisfaction
Misfortune
Men
Avoid
Optimist
Seemed
Cunning
Egoists
Question
Misfortunes
Vexed
State
Anxious
Alibi

More quotes by Georges Bernanos

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Hell is not to love anymore.
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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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There is nothing that God hates so much as a liar.
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The devil, you see, is that friend who never stays with us to the end.
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The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.
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A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.
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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.
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A large number of suspects, both men and women, escaped martial law for lack of any shred of evidence against them on which a court-martial could convict. So they began setting them free in groups, according to their birth-place. But half-way, the car-load would be emptied into a ditch.
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Who are you to condemn another's sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it.
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God knows that we should not despise anything. We must do our best.
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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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It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.
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First of all, be what you are.
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It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.
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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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[P]ride has no intrinsic substance, being no more than the name given to the soul devouring itself. When that loathsome perversion of love has borne its fruit, it has another, more meaningful and weightier name. We call it hatred.
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Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.
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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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Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards.
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Our rages, daughters of despair, creep and squirm like worms. Prayer is the only form of revolt which remains upright.
Georges Bernanos