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Bernard of Clairvaux

23 quotes

“Experto crede: aliquid amplius invenies in silvis, quam in libris. Ligna et lapides docebunt te, quod a magistris audire non possis.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistola CVI, sect. 2; translation from Edward Churton The Early English Church ([1840] 1841) p. 324
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“Liberavi animam meam.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) first seen 1147 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Abbot Suger, Epistles no. 371 (c. 1147)
“Bestia illa de Apocalypsi, cui datum est os loquens blasphemias, et bellum gerere cum sanctis (Apoc. XIII, 5-7), Petri cathedram occupat, tanquam leo paratus ad praedam.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) first seen 1131 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Magister Geoffrey of Loretto (afterwards Archbishop of Bordeaux), Letter 37 ( c. 1131), in Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (1904), Dr. Samuel John Eales, trans., John Hodges, London, p. 139.
“Non est jam dicere, "Ut populus, sic sacerdos"; quia nec si populus, ut sacerdos.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Conversione S. Pauli, Sermon 1, sect. 3; translation by James Spedding, in The Works of Francis Bacon (1860) vol. 12, p. 134
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“Qui se sibi magistrum constituit, stulto se discipulum subdit.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“Vulgo dicitur: Quod non videt oculus, cor non dolet.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“Qui me amat, amat et canem meam.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Festo Sancti Michaelis, Sermo 1, sect. 3; translation from Richard Chevenix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin On the Lessons in Proverbs ([1853] 1856) p. 148
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“Ego addo et de pertinacia Græcorum, qui nobiscum sunt, et nobiscum non sunt, juncti fide, pace divisi, quanquam et in fide ipsa claudicaverint a semitis rectis.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) first seen 1149 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De Consideratione (1149-1152), lib. III (1152), c. I; Book of Considerations, part III, ch. I
Also quoted by: Bernardus Claraevallensis (la)
“My burden is light," said the blessed Redeemer, a light burden indeed, which carries him that bears it. I have looked through all nature for a resemblance of this, and seem to find a shadow of it in the wings of a bird, which are indeed borne by the creature, and yet support her flight towards heaven.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 88
“The faith of simplicity is mocked, the secrets of Christ profaned, questions on the highest things are impertinently asked, the Fathers scorned because they were disposed to conciliate rather than solve such problems. Human reason is snatching everything to itself, leaving nothing for faith. It falls upon things which are beyond it...desecrates sacred things more than clarifies them. It does not unlock mysteries and symbols, but tears them asunder; it makes nought of everything to which it cannot gain access and disdains to believe all such things.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Walter Nigg, The Heretics: Heresy Through the Ages (1962) (who cites Adolph Hausrath 1895 as a source)
“Prostrate, see Thy cross I grasp, And Thy pierced feet I clasp; Gracious Jesus, spurn me not; On me, with compassion fraught, Let Thy glances fall. From thy cross of agony, My Beloved, look on me; Turn me wholly unto Thee; "Be thou whole," say openly, "I forgive thee all.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Salve Mundi Salutare", trans. in Elizabeth Rundle Charles, Te Deum Laudamus (1858); 5th ed. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1897), pp. 180–181
“Our King [Jesus] is accused of treachery; it is said of him [by the Muslims] that he is not God, but that he falsely pretended to be something he was not.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? : Understanding the Differences between Christianity and Islam (2002) by Timothy George, p. 49
“Obey your bishop! “Obey those set over you [Heb 13:17],” the teachers of the Church…. I remind you, my dear friends, of what I said when I was with you: do not receive any outside or unknown preacher, unless he be sent by your bishop or preaches with the permission of the pope. For “how shall they preach unless they are sent [Rom 10:15]?”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bernard of Clairvaux on the Life of the Mind, John R. Sommerfeldt, Newman Press (2004) , p. 67
“Do what Jesus says,... what he commands through his ministers who are in the Church [see 1 Cor 6:4]. Be subject to his vicars, your leaders, not only those who are gentle and kind, but even those who are overbearing [see 1 Pt 2:18].”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bernard of Clairvaux on the Life of the Mind, John R. Sommerfeldt, Newman Press (2004) , p. 67
“It’s not as if grace did one half of the work and free choice the other; each does the whole work, in its own peculiar contribution. Grace does the whole work, and so does free choice – with this one qualification: That whereas the whole is done in free choice, so is the whole done of grace.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Grace & Free Choice, chap 14.(de Gratia Et Libero Arbitrio), Daniel O'Donovan, trans., Introduction, Bernard McGinn, Cistercian Publications, 1988, p. 37. (Note: Fr. Harry J. McSorley, C.S.P. Commenting on this teach…
“Among us on the earth there is His memory; but in the Kingdom of heaven His very Presence. That Presence is the joy of those who have already attained to beatitude; the memory is the comfort of us who are still wayfarers, journeying towards the Fatherland.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of our love for Him is to love Him without measure.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Loving God, Ch. 6, as translated in Leon Cristiani, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. M. Angeline Bouchard (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1983), p. 102
“What of the souls already released from their bodies? We believe that they are overwhelmed in that vast sea of eternal light and of luminous eternity”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Impassibilis est Deus, sed non incompassibilis.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sunt namque qui scire volunt eo fine tantum ut sciant; et turpis curiositas est. Et sunt qui scire volunt, ut sciantur ipsi; et turpis vanitas est. ... Et sunt item qui scire volunt, ut scientiam suam vendant, verbi causa, pro pecunia, pro honoribus; et turpis quaestus est. Sed sunt quoque qui scire volunt, ut aedificent; et caritas est. Et item qui scire volunt, ut aedificentur; et prudentia est.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For there are some who want knowledge for the sole purpose of knowing, and this is unseemly curiosity. And there are some who seek knowledge in order to be known themselves; and this is unseemly vanity. ... And there ar…
“I rejoiced so greatly when I heard of your answer in the case of some who seemed to be filled with extravagant ambition for the office of legate, and to hope for it with impudence, even more than I can say. And not only I but all who love your name rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Moreover, when I read your letter written in the cause of the Church of Rodez, then was my mouth filled with laughter and my tongue with joy. Such things as these are worthy of your Apostleship, they honour the highest See, they are just what is becoming to the Bishop of the world. Whence, also, I bow my knees to the Author of your unique Primacy... In truth, you have been raised to this chair for the fall and rising again of many.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) first seen 1146 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bernard to Pope Eugene III, letter 240:1, A.D. 1146, concerning the election of a certain unworthy bishop at the Church of Rodez (see letter 328). In The Life and works of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, John Mabillo…
“I would count him blessed and holy to whom such rapture has been vouchsafed in this mortal life, for even an instant to lose thyself, as if thou wert emptied and lost and swallowed up in God, is no human love; it is celestial. But if sometimes a poor mortal feels that heavenly joy for a rapturous moment, then this wretched life envies his happiness, the malice of daily trifles disturbs him, this body of death weighs him down, the needs of the flesh are imperative, the weakness of corruption fails him, and above all brotherly love calls him back to duty. Alas! that voice summons him to re-enter his own round of existence; and he must ever cry out lamentably, ‘O Lord, I am oppressed: undertake for me’ (Isa. 38.14); and again, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom. 7.24)Seeing that the Scripture saith, God has made all for His own glory (Isa. 43.7), surely His creatures ought to conform themselves, as much as they can, to His will. In Him should all our affections center, so that in all things we should seek only to do His will, not to please ourselves. And real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God’s will for us: even as we pray every day: ‘Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6.10). O chaste and holy love! O sweet and gracious affection! O pure and cleansed purpose, thoroughly washed and purged from any admixture of selfishness, and sweetened by contact with the divine will! To reach this state is to become deified. As a drop of water poured into wine loses itself, and takes the color and savor of wine; or as a bar of iron, heated red-hot, becomes like fire itself, forgetting its own nature; or as the air, radiant with sun-beams, seems not so much to be illuminated as to be light itself; so in the saints all human affections melt away by some unspeakable transmutation into the will of God. For how could God be all in all, if anything merely human remained in man? The substance will endure, but in another beauty, a higher power, a greater glory. When will that be? Who will see, who possess it? ‘When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?’ (Ps. 42.2). ‘My heart hath talked of Thee, Seek ye My face: Thy face, Lord, will I seek’ (Ps. 27.8). Lord, thinkest Thou that I, even I shall see Thy holy temple?”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Look at those detractors. Look at those dogs. They ridicule us for baptizing infants, praying for the dead, and asking the prayers of the saints. They lose no time in cutting Christ off from all kinds of people to both sexes, young and old, living and dead. They put infants outside the sphere of grace because they are too young to receive it, and those who are full grown because they find difficulty in preserving chastity. They deprive the dead of the help of the living, and rob the living of the prayers of the saints because they have died. God forbid! The Lord will not forsake his people who are as the sands of the sea, nor will he who redeemed all be content with a few, and those heretics....”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153) said by 1153 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source