Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.
Francois FenelonRead
God felt, God tasted and enjoyed is indeed God, but God with those gifts which flatter the soul, God in darkness, in privation, in forsakenness, in sensibility, is so much God, that he is so to speak God bare and alone. Shall we fear this death, which is to produce in us the true divine life of grace?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes experiencing God not just in joy and abundance, but in suffering and isolation as well.
In this quote, Francois Fenelon invites us to recognize the presence of God in both the joyous and the challenging aspects of life. He suggests that true divinity is discovered in moments of emptiness and hardship, encouraging us to embrace our struggles as a pathway to spiritual growth and grace, rather than fearing them.
Themes
GodSufferingGraceSpiritualityLife
In practice
Example use cases
During a sermon about the importance of faith in difficult times, one might use this quote to highlight the idea of finding God in suffering.
More from Francois Fenelon
All quotes →True prayer is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then is to desire -- but to desire what God would have us desire. He who asks what he does not from the bottom of his heart desire, is mistaken in thinking that he prays.
Francois FenelonRead
The greatest of all crosses is self. If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. These little daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.
Francois FenelonRead
How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.
Francois FenelonRead
If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate.
Francois FenelonRead
If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading I would spurn them all.
Francois FenelonRead
Similar quotes
Words can be meaningless. If they are used in such a way that no sharp conclusions can be drawn.
Richard P. FeynmanRead
The questions asked at the end of lie are very simple ones: Did I love well? Did I love the people around me, my community, the earth, in a deep way? And perhaps, Did I live fully? Did I offer myself to life?
Jack KornfieldRead
To like an individual because he's black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn't white.
E. E. CummingsRead
For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.
James A. BaldwinRead
Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. [...] Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
Douglas AdamsRead
That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.
Jean-Paul SartreRead