Francois Fenelon Quotes

Although I do wrong, I do not the wrongs that I am charged with doing; the wrong that I do is through the frailty of human nature, like other men. No man lives without fault.

The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones.

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

Governor [Myron] Herrick is not a bad man; he is simply weak. He is one of those men who can do dishonest things honestly.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

A people may let a king fall and still remain a people, but if a king let his people slip from him, he is no longer a king.

Peoples did not in the first instance originate from rulers, but whatever peoples desired to be ruled by a single monarch or by chief men elected by them were anterior to their rulers. Hence it follows that peoples were not created for the sake of rulers, but on the contrary the rulers for the sake of the people.

In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and improve.

For the King, for the people, for the law.

No man ruleth safely but that he is willingly ruled.

Every man alive in the world is a beggar of one sort or another, every last one of them, great and small. The priest begs God for grace, and the king begs something for something. Sometimes he begs the people for loyalty, sometimes he begs God to forgive him

I have told you already a hundred times: You are not a King and yet you have no idea how to be one …. All your difficulties and anxieties come from your own bad administration and because you have never paid any attention to my advice. I shall always regret having given you a kingdom where you have merely profited from the reputation of my name

Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness. Men who have greatness within them don’t go far in politics.

Princes rule the people, and their own passions rule Princes; but Providence can over-rule the whole, and draw the instruments of his inscrutable purposes from the vices, no less than the virtues of Kings.

The queens in history compare favorably with the kings.

You can be a great president and be ridden with flaws. Of course we know that.

One novel that I think is an overriding influence in my life is 'All the King's Men,' the most beautiful book written in the U.S.

My character is not flawless.

As long as these blood brothers are our leaders, and as long as your party officials are Jewish lackeys, you will be no threat to the big money men.

The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them.

Oh, this base heart of ours! Hath it not enough tinder in it to set on fire the course of nature? If a spark do but fall into it, any one of our members left to itself would dishonour Christ, deny the Lord that bought us, and turn back into perdition.

George Eliot tenderly carried in her heart the burdens of our race. She looked through pity's tears upon the faults and frailties of mankind.

There's a tendency, especially among revolutionaries, to only show the good side of yourself and then when you come to power, the bad side comes out.

People in very high places suddenly fall, and we are always surprised because we don't factor in the basic element that they're humans and, therefore, they are flawed and have weaknesses.