Julian of Norwich Quotes
Julian of Norwich was an English anchoress and the author of the Revelations of Divine Love, the first surviving book in English written by a woman. At thirty she received a series of sixteen visions during a near-fatal illness, and she devoted the rest of her life, enclosed in a cell attached to St Julian's Church in Norwich, to meditating on their meaning. The quotes below are attributed to Julian of Norwich, organized by topic.
Browse Julian of Norwich by topic
Julian of Norwich on Death
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“I understood by my reason and by my feeling of my pains that I should die; and I assented fully with all the will of my heart to be at God's will. Thus I dured till day, and by then my body was dead from the middle downwards, as to my feeling. Then was I minded to be set upright, backward leaning, with help, — for to have more freedom of my heart to be at God's will, and thinking on God while my life would last.”
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“Now behoveth me to tell in what manner I saw sin deadly in the creatures which shall not die for sin, but live in the joy of God without end.”
Chapter 72 -
“The Enemy is overcome by the blessed Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Chapter 13
Julian of Norwich on God
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“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 27 -
“He said not, 'Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted'; but He said, 'Thou shalt not be overcome.'”
Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 68 -
Attributed to Julian of Norwich:
“The greatest honour we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of His love.”
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“This is a Revelation of Love that Jesus Christ , our endless bliss, made in Sixteen Shewings, or Revelations particular. Of the which the First is of His precious crowning with thorns; and therewith was comprehended and specified the Trinity, with the Incarnation, and unity betwixt God and man's soul ; with many fair shewings of endless wisdom and teachings of love: in which all the Shewings that follow be grounded and oned.”
First lines -
“Our Lord God, Allmighty Wisdom, All-Love, right as verily as He hath made everything that is, all-so verily He doeth and worketh all-thing that is done.”
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“We are kept all as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of God.”
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“Our Lord is the Ground of our Prayer. Herein were seen two properties: the one is rightful prayer, the other is steadfast trust; which He willeth should both be alike large; and thus our prayer pleaseth Him and He of His Goodness fulfilleth it.”
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“These Revelations were shewed to a simple creature unlettered, the year of our Lord 1373, the Thirteenth day of May. Which creature afore desired three gifts of God. The First was mind of His Passion; the Second was bodily sickness in youth, at thirty years of age; the Third was to have of God's gift three wounds.”
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“For the Third, by the grace of God and teaching of Holy Church I conceived a mighty desire to receive three wounds in my life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wound of steadfast longing toward God. And all this last petition I asked without any condition. These two desires aforesaid passed from my mind, but the third dwelled with me continually.”
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“Because of this great, endless love that God hath to all Mankind, He maketh no disparting in love between the blessed Soul of Christ and the least soul that shall be saved.”
Chapter 54 -
“The age of every man shall be acknowledged before him in Heaven, and every man shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time.”
Chapter 14 -
“God willeth that we endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it.”
Chapter 40 -
“Beseeching is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the Holy Ghost.”
Chapter 41 -
“Thus Christ is our Way, us surely leading in His laws, and Christ in His body mightily beareth us up into heaven.”
Chapter 55 -
“God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that each thing hath, it is He.”
Chapter 8 -
“To this our Lord answered in this manner: A great thing shall I make hereof in Heaven of endless worship and everlasting joys.”
Chapter 28 -
“It is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the Deed shall be.”
Chapter 33 -
“Our Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do it, and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder His Goodness working.”
Chapter 36 -
“Immediately is the soul made at one with God when it is truly set at peace in itself.”
Chapter 49
Julian of Norwich on Happiness
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“We shall suddenly be taken from all our pain and from all our woe, and of His Goodness we shall come up above, where we shall have our Lord Jesus for our meed and be fulfilled with joy and bliss in Heaven.”
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“With this same cheer of mirth and joy our good Lord looked down on the right side and brought to my mind where our Lady stood in the time of His Passion; and said: Wilt thou see her?”
Chapter 25 -
“Here saw I verily that if He shewed now us His Blissful Cheer, there is no pain in earth or in other place that should aggrieve us; but all things should be to us joy and bliss.”
Chapter 21 -
“The cause why He suffereth is for He will of His goodness make us the higher with Him in His bliss; and for this little pain that we suffer here, we shall have an high endless knowing in God which we could never have without that.”
Chapter 21 -
“He gave me understanding of two parts. The one part is our Saviour and our salvation. This blessed part is open and clear and fair and light, and plenteous, — for all mankind that is of good will, and shall be, is comprehended in this part.”
Chapter 30 -
“Thus signifieth He where He saith: I am Ground of thy beseeching. And thus in this blessed word, with the Shewing, I saw a full overcoming against all our weakness and all our doubtful dreads.”
Chapter 42
Julian of Norwich on Knowledge
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Attributed to Julian of Norwich:
“Seeking is as good as beholding.”
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“We may never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul.”
Chapter 56 | Variant: We can never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul. -
“Here understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved.”
Chapter 40 -
“Chapter 54”
Variant: Faith is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief and sure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God is in us: Whom we see not. -
“After this I saw God in a Point, that is to say, in mine understanding, — by which sight I saw that He is in all things.”
Chapter 11 -
“Our high God is sovereign Wisdom of all: in this low place He arrayed and dight Him full ready in our poor flesh, Himself to do the service and the office of Motherhood in all things.”
Chapter 60 -
“Through this sight of the blessed Passion, with the Godhead that I saw in mine understanding, I knew well that It was strength enough for me, yea, and for all creatures living, against all the fiends of hell and ghostly temptation.”
Chapter 4 -
“This hath ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to my Heaven, by His grace, in all this time of Passion and sorrow; and that hath been a learning to me that I should evermore do so: choose only Jesus to my Heaven in weal and woe.”
Chapter 19
Julian of Norwich on Love
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“Love was His meaning.”
Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 86 -
“Our Lord Jesus sheweth in love His blissful heart even cloven in two, rejoicing.”
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“The love that made Him to suffer passeth as far all His pains as Heaven is above Earth.”
Chapter 22 -
“There was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marvelled and thought what it might be, and I was answered in mine understanding: It is a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord.”
Chapter 51 -
“I saw full surely that all the works that God hath done, or ever shall, were fully known to Him and aforeseen from without beginning. And for Love He made Mankind, and for the same Love would be Man.”
Chapter 57 -
“We give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of mercy and grace we are made all fair and clean.”
Chapter 40 -
“He that made all things for love, by the same love keepeth them, and shall keep them without end.”
Chapter 8 -
“Love was without beginning, is, and shall be without ending. For which love He said full sweetly these words: If I might suffer more, I would suffer more.”
Chapter 22
Julian of Norwich on Virtue
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Attributed to Julian of Norwich:
“He did not say: 'You shall not be tempest-tossed, you shall not be over-strained, you shall not be disquieted'; but He said: 'You shall not be overcome.'”
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“These two desires of the Passion and the sickness I desired with a condition, saying thus: Lord, Thou knowest what I would, — if it be Thy will that I have it — and if it be not Thy will, good Lord, be not displeased: for I will nought but as Thou wilt.”
Wikiquote