Jacques Bénigne Bossuet Quotes

God is the one in whom non-being has no place.

Thus it belongs to the spirit, that is to say to the understanding, to judge beauty; because to judge beauty is to judge order, proportion and rightness; things that only the mind can perceive.

The heretic is one who has an opinion; and that is what the word itself signifies. What does it mean to have an opinion? It is to follow one's own particular thought and feeling. But the Catholic is catholic: that is to say, he is universal; and without having any particular sentiment, he follows without hesitation that of the Church.

Les uns alléguant toujours que la liberté excessive se détruit enfin elle-même; et les autres craignant au contraire que l'autorité, que de sa nature croît toujours, ne dégénérât enfin en tyrannie.

In the midst of the disguises and artifices that reign among men, it is only attention and vigilance that can save us from surprises.

It is the greatest of all weaknesses to be too afraid of appearing weak.

La sagesse humaine apprend beaucoup, si elle apprend à se taire.

[C]et inexorable ennui, qui fait le fond de la vie humaine depui que l'homme a perdu le goût de Dieu!

Le propre de l'hérétique, c'est-à-dire de colui qui a une opinion particulière, est de s'attacher à ses propres pensées; et le propre du catholique, c'est-à-dire de l'universel, est de préférer à ses sentiments le sentiment commun de tout l'Eglise.

Some always allege that excessive freedom ultimately destroys itself; while others fear on the contrary that authority, which by its nature always grows, will finally degenerate into tyranny.

Mais Dieu se rit des prières qu'on lui fait pour détourner les malheurs publics, quand on ne s'oppose pas à ce qui se fait pour les attirer. Que dis-je? quand on l'approuve et qu'on y souscrit, quoique ce soit avec répugnance.

A man does not want to believe that he is proud, or cowardly, or lazy, or hotheaded; he wants to believe that he is the right sort; and although his conscience reproaches him for his faults, he prefers to suppress the feeling he has of them, than to have the unpleasantness of knowing about them.

Le fruit de la démonstration est la science.

Human happiness consists in living according to reason.

The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe things because we want them to be so and not because we have seen them for what they are.