Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes
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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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Hell is full of good wishes or desires.
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Therefore gird yourselves manfully and take up joyful arms for the name of God.
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My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the King against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring.
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There are three distinct comings of the Lord of which I know: His coming to men, His coming into men, and His coming against men.
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The true measure of loving God is to love him without measure.
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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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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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Persecution shows who is a hireling, and who a true pastor.
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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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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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If anyone makes himself his own master in the spiritual life, he makes himself scholar to a fool.
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Death is the gate of life.
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I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.
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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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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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A pretext is never lacking to him who would break with a friend.
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Love me, love my dog.
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The spiteful tongue strikes a deadly blow at charity in all who hear him speak and, so far as it can, destroys root and branch, not only in the immediate hearers but also in all others to whom the slander, flying from lip to lip, is afterwards repeated.
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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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Humility in furs is better than pride in tunics.
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From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again.
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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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The three most important virtues are humility, humility, and humility.