Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes on God
Bernard of Clairvaux, the great Cistercian abbot and mystical theologian, made the love of God the centre of his teaching, and the quotes gathered here express it. His treatise On Loving God supplies its most memorable formula: the reason for loving God is God himself, and the measure of love is to love without measure. Bernard held that this love is bound up with self-knowledge, since without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God, and he charted the soul's ascent through humility toward union with the divine. He distinguished the present life, in which believers have only the memory of God, from the beatific Presence enjoyed in heaven, and he taught that God, though incapable of suffering, is never without compassion. Drawn from On Loving God and the Sermons on the Song of Songs, these passages present God as the one object worthy of a boundless love.
Quotes
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“The reason for loving God is God himself; the measure of love is to love without measure.”
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 -
Attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux:
“Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.”
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“I have freed my soul.”
Liberavi animam meam. -
“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.”
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 -
“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 .”
On Loving God(c. 1128–1129) | On Loving God , Ch. 3, Paul Halsall trans. -
“Alternate translation: God cannot suffer, but He can have compassion.”
Sermons on the Song of Songs(1135–1153) -
“On Loving God , Ch. 3, Paul Halsall trans.”
On Loving God(c. 1128–1129) -
“God cannot suffer, but is not without compassion.”
Sermons on the Song of Songs(1135–1153)