Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes

Learn first to love yourself, and then you can love me.

Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love in order that I may love.

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.

He rightly reads scripture who turns words into deeds.

Love of Mary and devotion to her are a sure sign of obtaining eternal salvation.

From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again.

Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you need is not a sceptre but a hoe.

Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire… Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). But neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.

The rivers of Grace cannot flow uphill, up the steep cliff of the proud man’s heart.

Humility is, of all graces, the chiefest when it does not know itself to be a grace at all.

True penance consists in regretting without ceasing the faults of the past, and in firmly resolving to never again commit that which is so deplorable.

The peacemakers shall be called the sons of God, who came to make peace between God and man. What then shall the sowers of discord be called, but the children of the devil? And what must they look for but their father’s portion?