Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes
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The Eucharist is that love which surpasses all loves in Heaven and on earth.
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If anyone makes himself his own master in the spiritual life, he makes himself scholar to a fool.
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Hell is full of good wishes or desires.
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With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.
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The true measure of loving God is to love him without measure.
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Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you need is not a sceptre but a hoe.
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A truly obedient man does not discriminate between one thing and another, since his only aim is to execute faithfully whatever may be assigned to him.
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Obey your bishop! "Obey those set over you [Heb 13:17]," the teachers of the Church... I remind you, my dear friends, of what I said when I was with you: do not receive any outside or unknown preacher, unless he be sent by your bishop or preaches with the permission of the pope. For "how shall they preach unless they are sent [Rom 10:15]?"
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We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place in ourselves for those who love us.
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Persecution shows who is a hireling, and who a true pastor.
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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.
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It was love that motivated His self-emptying, that led Him to become a little lower than angels, to be subject to parents, to bow His head beneath the Baptist's hands, to endure the weakness of the flesh, and to submit to death even upon the cross.
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Love me, love my dog.
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Love is alone sufficient by itself, it pleases by itself and for it's own sake. It is itself a merit, and itself it's own recompense. It seeks neither cause, nor consequences beyond itself. It is its own fruit, its own object and usefulness. I love because I love you, I love that I may love.
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What does God hate or punish except self-will? Let self-will cease, and there will be no hell. On what does that fire feed except on self-will?
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I do a great wrong in His sight, when I beseech Him that He will hear my prayer, which as I give utterance to it, I do not hear myself. I entreat Him that He will think of me; but I regard neither myself nor Him. Nay, what is worse, turning over corrupt and evil thoughts in mine heart, I thrust a dreadful offensiveness into His presence.
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Death is the gate of life.
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It's not as if grace did one half of the work and free choice the other; each does the whole work, in its own peculiar contribution. Grace does the whole work, and so does free choice - with this one qualification: That whereas the whole is done in free choice, so is the whole done of grace.
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I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.
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A pretext is never lacking to him who would break with a friend.
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Humility is, of all graces, the chiefest when it does not know itself to be a grace at all.
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Your actions in passing, pass not away, for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life.
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Thus understanding and love, that is, the knowledge of and delight in the truth, are, as it were, the two arms of the soul, with which it embraces and comprehends with all the saints the length and breath, the height and depth, that is the eternity, the love, the goodness, and the wisdom of God.
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And truly, O man, if you concentrate hard on the state you are in it will be surprising if you have time for anything else.