Teaching is no joke, sonny! ... Comforting truths, they call it! Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards. Besides, you've no right to call that sort of thing comfort. Might as well talk about condolences! The Word of God is a red-hot iron. And you who preach it 'ud go picking it up with a pair of tongs, for fear of burning yourself, you daren't get hold of it with both hands. It's too funny! Why, the priest who descends from the pulpit of Truth, with a mouth like a hen's vent, a little hot but pleased with himself, he's not been preaching: at best he's been purring like a tabby-cat. Mind you that can happen to us all, we're all half asleep, it's the devil to wake us up, sometimes — the apostles slept all right at Gethsemane. Still, there's a difference... And mind you many a fellow who waves his arms and sweats like a furniture-remover isn't necessarily any more awakened than the rest. On the contrary. I simply mean that when the Lord has drawn from me some word for the good of souls, I know, because of the pain of it.

Teaching is no joke, sonny! ... Comforting truths, they call it! Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards. Besides, you've no right to call that sort of thing comfort. Might as well talk about condolences! The Word of God is a red-hot iron. And you who preach it 'ud go picking it up with a pair of tongs, for fear of burning yourself, you daren't get hold of it with both hands. It's too funny! Why, the priest who descends from the pulpit of Truth, with a mouth like a hen's vent, a little hot but pleased with himself, he's not been preaching: at best he's been purring like a tabby-cat. Mind you that can happen to us all, we're all half asleep, it's the devil to wake us up, sometimes — the apostles slept all right at Gethsemane. Still, there's a difference... And mind you many a fellow who waves his arms and sweats like a furniture-remover isn't necessarily any more awakened than the rest. On the contrary. I simply mean that when the Lord has drawn from me some word for the good of souls, I know, because of the pain of it.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote
Save Quote
Similar Quotes by georges-bernanos

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Faith is not a thing which one 'loses', we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes the face of a brave man.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Hell, madam, is to love no longer.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Hope is a risk that must be run.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Our rages daughters of despair creep and squirm like worms. Prayer is the only form of revolt which remains upright.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Hope is a risk that must be run.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

Hell madame is to love no longer.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote

A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.

Georges Bernanos
Save QuoteView Quote