Mauriac Francois Quotes

A writer is essentially a man who does not resign himself to loneliness. ~ Francois Mauriac

I felt at one and the same time quite close, within reach of my hand, and yet an infinite distance away, an unknown world of goodness. Often Isa had said to me: 'You, who see nothing but evil ... You, who see evil everywhere ... ' It was true, and it was not true. ~ Francois Mauriac

I love Germany so much I'm glad there are two of them. ~ Francois Mauriac

Death was not a person ... with a devil one could talk, with the worst of monsters one could reach some sort of understanding, make some kind of bargain ... Death was horrible just because it was nothing, because it had no existence, because it smothered all it touched, turned everything to emptiness. ~ Francois Mauriac

It seems that, after nineteen centuries of extraordinary glorification, the small Host for which so many cathedrals have sprung up, the small Host that has rested in millions of breasts and that has found a tabernacle and worshippers even in the desert - it seems that the triumphant Host of Lourdes and the Eucharistic Congresses of Chicago and Carthage remains as unknown, as secret as when it appeared for the first time in a room in Jerusalem. Light is in the world as in the days of St. John the Baptist, and the world does not know it ~ Francois Mauriac

Tell me what you read and I will tell you who you are. ~ Francois Mauriac

No man can bear a child's cross. ~ Francois Mauriac

The sin against nature [is] - compulsory celibacy ~ Francois Mauriac

By the time dusk fell, he was back in his room. The last of the daylight lay like fine ashes on the roof-tops. He did not light his lamp, but sat by the fireplace in the dark, seeking in the far distance of his past some vague memory of a love-affair, some recollection of a friendship, with which to soften the hard tyranny of isolation. ~ Francois Mauriac

What an odd creature you are, Bernard, with your constant fear of death! Do you never have a feeling, as I do, of utter futility? No? Doesn't it occur to you that the sort of life people like us lead is remarkably like death? ~ Francois Mauriac

God does not answer our desperate questionings; he simply gives us himself. ~ Francois Mauriac

A good critic is the sorcerer who makes some hidden spring gush forth unexpectedly under our feet. ~ Francois Mauriac

Human love is often but the encounter of two weaknesses. ~ Francois Mauriac

She was surprised to find that something from deep down in herself welled into her eyes and burned her cheeks: a few poor tears shed by one who never cried! ~ Francois Mauriac

The really pure in heart know nothing of what goes on around them each day, each night; never realize what poisonous weeds spring up beneath their childish feet. ~ Francois Mauriac

Let us be wary of ready-made ideas about cowardice and courage: the same burden weighs infinitely more heavily on some shoulders than on others. ~ Francois Mauriac

No love, no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever. ~ Francois Mauriac

It never occurs to one to think whether she is pretty or ugly. One just surrenders to her charm. ~ Francois Mauriac

The arrogance of poets is only a defense; doubt gnaws the greatest among them; they need our testimony to escape despair. ~ Francois Mauriac

Observe that for the novelist who has remained Christian, like myself, man is someone creating himself or destroying himself. He is not an immobile being, fixed, cast in a mold once and for all. This is what makes the traditional psychological novel so different from what I did or thought I was doing. The human being as I conceive him in the novel is a being caught up in the drama of human salvation, even if he doesn't know it. ~ Francois Mauriac

I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day; a novel should not be interrupted. ~ Francois Mauriac

What I fear is not being forgotten after my death, but, rather, not being enough forgotten. As we were saying, it is not our books that survive, but our poor lives that linger in the histories. ~ Francois Mauriac

This God who, as the psalmist said, built His tabernacles in the sun, now establishes Himself in the very core of the flesh and the blood. ~ Francois Mauriac

That is the mystery of grace: it never comes too late. ~ Francois Mauriac

Where does discipline end? Where does cruelty begin? Somewhere between these, thousands of children inhabit a voiceless hell. ~ Francois Mauriac

A cemetery saddens us because it is the only place of the world in which we do not meet our dead again. ~ Francois Mauriac

What a fool she was ever to have imagined that there might be some place in the world where she could sink to the earth with the knowledge that there were people round her who understood, who perhaps even admired and loved her! She was fated to carry loneliness about with her as a leper carries his scabs. 'No one can do anything for me: no one can do anything against me. ~ Francois Mauriac

We are, all of us, molded and remolded by those who have loved us, and though that love may pass, we remain none the less their work
a work that very likely they do not recognize, and which is never exactly what they intended. ~ Francois Mauriac

Beautiful coquettes are quacks of love. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The concealment of art by the actor is as great a mark of genius as it is in the painter. ~ Francois Delsarte

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In 1815, M. Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of D - He was an old man of about seventy-five years of age; he had occupied the see of D - since 1806. ~ Victor Hugo

No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

315. - What commonly hinders us from showing the recesses of our heart to our friends, is not the distrust we have of them, but that we have of ourselves. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you re-read. François Mauriac ~ Trista Day

That which occasions so many mistakes in the computations of men, when they expect return for favors, is that the giver's pride and the receiver's cannot agree upon the value of the kindness done. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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. ~ Francois Fenelon

We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks encircling it under arcades in the old Florentine fashion, and gardens planted with magnificent trees. In the dining-room, a long and superb gallery which was situated on the ground-floor and opened on the gardens, M. Henri Puget had entertained in state, on July 29, 1714, My Lords Charles Brulart de Genlis, archbishop; Prince d'Embrun; Antoine de Mesgrigny, the capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philippe de Vendome, Grand Prior of France, Abbe of Saint Honore de Lerins; Francois de Berton de Crillon, bishop, Baron de Vence; Cesar de Sabran de Forcalquier, bishop, Seignor of Glandeve; and Jean Soanen, Priest of the Oratory, preacher in ordinary to the king, bishop, Seignor of Senez. The portraits of these seven reverend personages decorated this apartment; and this memorable date, the 29th of July, 1714, was there engraved in letters of gold on a table of white marble. ~ Victor Hugo

Friends, you will notice that in this world there are many more ballocks than men. Remember this. ~ Francois Rabelais

Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We should manage our fortune as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

I became fascinated by the then-blossoming science of molecular biology when, in my senior year, I happened to read the papers by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod on the operon theory. ~ Susumu Tonegawa

We bear, all of us, the misfortunes of other people with heroic constancy. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Hitchcock: Definitely, I think the most interesting women, sexually, are the English women. I feel that the English women, the Swedes, the northern Germans, and Scandinavians are a great deal more exciting than the Latin, the Italian, and the French women. Sex should not be advertised. An English girl, looking like a schoolteacher, is apt to get into a cab with you and, to your surprise, she'll probably pull a man's pants open. ~ Francois Truffaut

It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Some day I'll make a film that critics will like. When I have money to waste. ~ Francois Truffaut

He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We pardon as long as we love. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language. ~ Francois Hollande

Mitterrand had a sense for symbols, and he was the first Socialist president since 1958. He wanted to show that there is historical continuity, a connection with the great figures of French history. ~ Francois Hollande

We do not despise all those with vices, but we do despise all those without a single virtue. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Whoever pays should control; whoever pays should sanction. I agree. But budgetary union should be completed by a partial mutualisation of debts through eurobonds. ~ Francois Hollande

People fear what they do not understand, if they do not understand your greatness, they will fear how great you are
- Francois Gabbidon
#VisionToVenture ~ Francois Gabbidon

136. - There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Private life is always, at certain times, a challenge. ~ Francois Hollande

He is safe who admits no one to his confidence. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are some good marriages, but practically no delightful ones. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Islamist terrorism has declared war against us, against France, Europe, the entire world. ~ Francois Hollande

without awareness that all belong to the one human race, man is but a wolf to man. This ~ Pierre-Francois De Bethune

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure. ~ Francois Truffaut