21 Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes

Bernard of Clairvaux quotes

1. Non est jam dicere, 'Ut populus, sic sacerdos'; quia nec si populus, ut sacerdos.

2. Qui se sibi magistrum constituit, stulto se discipulum subdit.

3. Experto crede: aliquid amplius invenies in silvis, quam in libris. Ligna et lapides docebunt te, quod a magistris audire non possis.

4. Vulgo dicitur: Quod non videt oculus, cor non dolet.

5. Qui me amat, amat et canem meam.

6. Inter faeces et urinam nascimur, from ...et quid de nobis, fratres, qui inter faeces et urinam nascimur...

7. It is difficult now to look back across the centuries and appreciate the tremendous impact of his personality on all who knew him. The fire of his eloquence has been quenched in the written words that survive. As a theologian and a controversialist he now appears rigid and a little crude and unkind. But from the day in 1115 when, at the age of twenty-five, he was appointed Abbot of Clairvaux, till his death nearly forty years later he was the dominant influence in the religious and political life of western Europe.

1. Slander is a poison which kills charity, both in the slanderer and the one who listens.

2. If anyone makes himself his own master in the spiritual life, he makes himself scholar to a fool.

3. I know by myself how incomprehensible God is, seeing I cannot comprehend the parts of my own being.

4. The tears of those repenting are the wine of angels.

5. Let us then cast ourselves at the feet of this good Mother, and embracing them let us not depart until she blesses us, and accepts us for her children.

6. We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.

7. Who loves me will love my dog also.

8. Ingratitude is the soul's enemy... Ingratitude is a burning wind that dries up the source of love, the dew of mercy, the streams of grace.

9. Many appear full of mildness and sweetness as long as everything goes their own way; but the moment any contradiction or adversity arises, they are in a flame, and begin to rage like a burning mountain. Such people as these are like red-hot coals hidden under ashes. This is not the mildness which Our Lord undertook to teach us in order to make us like unto Himself.

10. To serve Mary is a mark of eternal salvation to come.

11. Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul.

12. What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scriptures, I learned in woods and fields. I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.

13. Humility in furs is better than pride in tunics.

14. For I have learnt for a fact that nothing so effectively obtains, retains and regains grace, as that we should always be found not high-minded before God, but filled with holy fear.