Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.

From exile he mocked the 'ridiculous' Vichy regime and became a strong supporter of the nationalist Free French Forces led by the conservative Charles de Gaulle. He emigrated to South America in 1938 and stayed there until 1945 for most of the time in Barbacena Brazil where he tried his hand at managing a farm. He served in the First World War as a soldier where he witnessed the battles of the Somme and Verdun.

Georges Bernanos ([bɛʁnanos]; 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author and a soldier in World War I.