Passionate, uncompromising, honest, deep… Georges Bernanos (Georges Bernanos) – French writer and thinker – about strong people who hope because they had the courage to despair.
“Hope is the virtue of heroes. People think hope is easy. But only those who had the courage to despair, having rejected the illusions and lies where others took refuge, mistakenly taking them for hope, hope.
Hope means taking risks. Possibly the highest risk.
Hope is not self-indulgence. This is the greatest and most difficult victory over one’s soul that a person can win.
A dreamless night does not always portend a happy awakening. Most of those on death row sleep soundly on their last night… I do not take you for those on death row, but I think that you are in mortal danger. But, you see, only the one who wants to die dies, because in fact there is only one death, which is deservedly called death, the real, dead death: to die defeated. And only those who despair are defeated. Oh, I know, I don’t really look like a teacher of hope! Indeed, I do not teach hope. Hope is not taught like grammar. Hope, like faith, is the grace of God. All we need is a willingness to accept it. But we will be ready to hope for that which is not false after we despair of that which is false. So, I urge you to despair of your illusions, then despair will serve as hope with us.
Georges Bernanos (Georges Bernanos, 1888-1948) – French writer, participant in the First World War, fighter against the bourgeoisie, an emigrant who lived in Brazil. After World War II, he returned briefly to France. President de Gaulle offered him high posts – but Bernanos chose to refuse them and leave his homeland again to end his days in Tunisia. In the book “Freedom… for what?” Bernanos encourages us to reflect on the life we lead – and the one we have chosen for ourselves, even if we prefer to think that it is forced upon us by the force of insurmountable circumstances.
* J. Bernanos “Freedom … for what?” (Publishing house of Ivan Limbakh, 2014).