Léon Bloy Quotes

There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint.

A perfectly true thought, expressed in very sound terms, can satisfy the reason without giving any impression of the Beautiful; but in that case certainly there is something false in its statement. It is essential that Truth be in Glory. Splendor of style is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

Ah! The happy ones of this world who are assured their daily bread—that is, all the things necessary to bodily life—and who, not wishing to know Jesus, have never for one single instant had the idea of suffering for their brothers, of sacrificing themselves for the wretched: ah! indeed! such people are assuredly well qualified to judge me and to reproach me for not having what the world calls dignity!

Unhappy writer, you had dreamt of winning souls and you have won nothing but ears!

Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.

One sees the world's evil accurately only by exaggerating it.

My secret," he would say to me, "consists in loving with my whole soul, to the point of giving my life for them, the souls called to read me some day.

Woe to him who has not begged!
There is nothing more exalted than to beg.
God begs. The Angels beg. Kings, Prophets, and Saints beg.

Of the truths which embarrass him he thinks it better to remain unaware.

I see from time to time coins that are tinted with red, having been handled by a butcher or a murderer, and the sight of that money makes me wonder. As I think about the probable origin of that sign of wealth, I tell myself that that is indeed its true color, the color which it should, which it must have, the color that was doubtless taken on by Judas’s pieces of silver, after which he ceased to recognize them and returned them at once to the egregious scoundrels who had given them to him. These, not recognizing the pieces themselves, did not want to return to the treasury of the Temple money so strange in its color. Everyone knows they used it to buy the field of blood, a generic name which I imagine can be applied to all bourgeois holdings ever since the Scourging and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Bourgeois who has religious feelings sees very clearly the absolute necessity of serving two masters at the same time in order to achieve success in his business, which naturally comes before everything else.

My anger is the effervescence of my pity.

You are always on the right side when you are with those who suffer persecution and injustice.

Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it.

You had hoped that the beloved and noble images flowing from your heart would serve as a river to carry to God many another heart! But, as you see, people are afraid of getting wet.