Top 150 François Fénelon Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Time spent in prayer is never wasted.”

— François Fénelon

2. “Above all, live in the present moment and God will give you all the grace you need.”

— François Fénelon

3. “Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation – speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.”

— François Fénelon

4. “We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs.”

— François Fénelon

5. “The more you say, the less people remember.”

— François Fénelon

6. “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins-is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?”

— François Fénelon

7. “All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.”

— François Fénelon

8. “You can often help others more by correcting your own faults than theirs. Remember, and you should, because of your own experience, that allowing God to correct your faults is not easy. Be patient with people, wait for God to work with them as He wills.”

— François Fénelon

9. “Should we feel at times disheartened and discouraged, a simple movement of heart toward God will renew our powers. Whatever he may demand of us, he will give us at the moment the strength and courage that we need.”

— François Fénelon

10. “I would have no desire other than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray; pray thyself in me.”

— François Fénelon

11. “Despondency is not a state of humility; on the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride – nothing is worse; whether we stumble or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.”

— François Fénelon

12. “Let gratitude for the past inspire us with trust for the future.”

— François Fénelon

13. “God is so good that He only awaits our desire to overwhelm us with the gift of himself.”

— François Fénelon

14. “The most essential point is lowliness.”

— François Fénelon

15. “Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.”

— François Fénelon

16. “I love my country better than my family; but I love humanity better than my country.”

— François Fénelon

17. “Listen less to your own thoughts and more to God’s thoughts.”

— François Fénelon

18. “Most people I ask little from. I try to give them much, and expect nothing in return and I do very well in the bargain.”

— François Fénelon

19. “The presence of God calms the soul, and gives it quiet and repose.”

— François Fénelon

20. “How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.”

— François Fénelon

21. “Resign every forbidden joy; restrain every wish that is not referred to God’s will; banish all eager desires, all anxiety; desire only the will of God; seek him alone and supremely, and you will find peace.”

— François Fénelon

22. “Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer.”

— François Fénelon

23. “So long as we are full of self we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.”

— François Fénelon

24. “No human power can force the intrenchments of the human mind: compulsion never persuades; it only makes hypocrites.”

— François Fénelon

25. “How different the peace of God from that of the world! It calms the passions, preserves the purity of the conscience, is inseparable from righteousness, unites us to God and strengthens us against temptations. The peace of the soul consists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.”

— François Fénelon

26. “God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him.”

— François Fénelon

27. “Speak, move, act in peace...”

— François Fénelon

28. “Never let us be discouraged with ourselves. It is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light; and let us remember for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them.”

— François Fénelon

29. “Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love.”

— François Fénelon

30. “Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul.”

— François Fénelon

31. “Faith is letting down our nets into the transparent deeps at the Divine command, not knowing what we shall draw.”

— François Fénelon

32. “Can we be unsafe where God has placed us, and where He watches over us as a parent a child that he loves?”

— François Fénelon

33. “The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God.”

— François Fénelon

34. “Pure love is in the will alone; it is no sentimental love, for the imagination has no part in it; it loves, if we may so express it, without feeling, as faith believes without seeing.”

— François Fénelon

35. “The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our willing whatever God wills, always, in every thing, and without reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.”

— François Fénelon

36. “A general rule for the good use of time is to accustom oneself to live in a continual dependence on the Spirit of God.”

— François Fénelon

37. “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.”

— François Fénelon

38. “How can you expect God to speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul, when you are making so much noise with your rapid reflections? Be silent and God will speak again.”

— François Fénelon

39. “Speak, move, act in peace, as if you were in prayer. In truth, this is prayer.”

— François Fénelon

40. “To be faithful in prayer it is indispensable that we arrange all the activities of the day with a regularity that nothing can disturb.”

— François Fénelon

41. “To will everything that God wills, and to will it always, in all circumstances and without reservations: that is the kingdom of God which is entirely within.”

— François Fénelon

42. “Make this simple rule the guide of your life: to have no will but God’s.”

— François Fénelon

43. “No more restless uncertainties, no more anxious desires, no more impatience at the place we are in; for it is God who has placed us there, and who holds us in his arms. Can we be unsafe where he has placed us?”

— François Fénelon

44. “It is often our own imperfection which makes us reprove the imperfection of others; a sharp-sighted self-love of others.”

— François Fénelon

45. “Let us endeavor to commence every enterprise with a pure view to the glory of God, continue it without distraction, and finish it without impatience.”

— François Fénelon

46. “Alas! how many souls there are full of self, and yet desirous of doing good and serving God, but in such a way as to suit themselves; who desire to impose rules upon God as to His manner of drawing them to Himself. They want to serve and possess Him, but they are not willing to be possessed by Him.”

— François Fénelon

47. “God bears with imperfect beings even when they resist His goodness. We ought to imitate this merciful patience and endurance. It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of other people.”

— François Fénelon

48. “If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God; and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.”

— François Fénelon

49. “Let us pray God that He would root out of our hearts every thing of our own planting, and set out there, with His own hands, the tree of life, bearing all manner of fruits.”

— François Fénelon

50. “There were some who said that a man at the point of death was more free than all others, because death breaks every bond, and over the dead the united world has no power.”

— François Fénelon