Quotes by Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) — Abt · Katholisch · Frankreich

Bernhard von Clairvaux (1090–1153) war ein französischer Mönch, Theologe und ab 1115 der erste Abt des Zisterzienserklosters Clairvaux. Er steht für eine christuszentrierte Mystik der Gottesliebe und die Erneuerung des Mönchtums, zog jedoch durch seinen Aufruf zum Zweiten Kreuzzug und sein polemisches Vorgehen gegen Denker wie Peter Abaelard schwere Kritik auf sich. Für heutige Bibelleser sind vor allem seine Schriften zur Gnade und seine Auslegungen des Hohenlieds von Bedeutung, die über Konfessionsgrenzen hinweg rezipiert werden.

Era: The Middle Ages

Recurring topics: God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Love, Faith & Trust, Wisdom & Understanding, Growth & Character, Humility & Pride, Temptation & Struggle, Meaning & Identity

Quotes by Bernard of Clairvaux

Jesus, what made you so small? Love!
Bernard of Clairvaux

You need not cross the seas, need not pierce the clouds, need not scale the Alps. The way shown to you is not far. You need only go to meet your God as far as yourself. For the word is near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Be like a fountain basin that first gathers the water within itself and then, overflowing, passes it on.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Indeed, who can be good to others if he is bad to himself? Remember then: grant yourself to yourself. I do not say: do this always. I do not say: do this often. But I say: do it from time to time. Be there for yourself, as you are for everyone else.
Bernard of Clairvaux

The measure of love for God is love without measure.
Bernard of Clairvaux

When Christ's hands were nailed to the cross, he also nailed our sins to the cross.
Bernard of Clairvaux

God was incomprehensible, unapproachable, invisible and unimaginable. He became man, came near to us in a manger, so that we could see him and grasp him.
Bernard of Clairvaux

One does not enter the garden of paradise with one's feet, but with one's heart.
Bernard of Clairvaux

He who is his own teacher has a fool for a teacher.
Bernard of Clairvaux

God is understood as much as He is loved.
Bernard of Clairvaux

We find inner peace with those we love, and we create within ourselves a quiet place for those who love us.
Bernard of Clairvaux

On its walls the church shows its splendor, on the poor its stinginess. Its stones are clothed in gold, but it leaves its children naked.
Bernard of Clairvaux

It is nothing great to be humble when you lie in the dust; but to be humble while great things are said of you—that is a great and rare achievement.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Set no limits on love; let it spread its branches as far as it can.
Bernard of Clairvaux

True love is not without reward, yet it does not love for the sake of reward.
Bernard of Clairvaux

I love God more than my own, more than my loved ones, more than myself.
Bernard of Clairvaux

A soul is never without the escort of angels, for these enlightened spirits know that our soul has greater worth.
Bernard of Clairvaux

The rest of God calms everything. And whoever lets himself down into God's rest, rests.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Nowhere does God show his love so clearly as in the mystery of his incarnation and his suffering.
Bernard of Clairvaux

One thought of Christ's suffering is worth as much as a spiritual communion.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Humility is the virtue by which a person, in the right knowledge of his own being, appears small to himself.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Christ is the mountain. Blessed is he who has climbed this blissful mountain with such longing and perseverance that he receives his dwelling place in this holy place.
Bernard of Clairvaux

The deed gives inner strength to the word, but prayer acquires inner power for deeds and words.
Bernard of Clairvaux

So often as we conquer, so often we are crowned.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Whoever gathers treasures in heaven need not fear the thief, and whoever reaches out for the great reward need not complain about manifold afflictions.
Bernard of Clairvaux

A Christian is like the moon: either waxing or waning.
Bernard of Clairvaux

You must reach for the knife of mortification often, even again and again, for weeds keep growing back. You deceive yourself if you think your faults are dead forever!
Bernard of Clairvaux

The godless always just run in circles.
Bernard of Clairvaux

Sources: wikipedia.org, stift-heiligenkreuz.org, deutschlandfunk.de

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