Quotes by Francois Fenelon

• Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.
• There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.
• A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.
• All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.
• All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
• Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.
• Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.
• Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
• 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.
• Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies.
• Little opportunities should be improved.
• If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate.