Francis de Sales Quotes
While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice.
de Sales, Francis. Introduction to the Devout Life. Translated by H. L. Sidney Lear, Rivingtons, 1876, p. 238.
Calumnaire fortiter, et aliquid adhaerebit. See Pierre Beaumarchais for a later version of this political tactic.
Francis de Sales was a Bishop of Geneva and is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God.
