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There are some who wish to learn for no other reason than that they may be looked upon as learned, which is ridiculous vanity ... Others desire to learn that they may morally instruct others, that is love. And, lastly, there are some who wish to learn that they may be themselves edified and that is prudence.

Bernard of Clairvaux

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Bernard of Clairvaux
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Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Saint Bernard
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St. Bernard
Bernhard
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More quotes by Bernard of Clairvaux

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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.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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For I have learnt for a fact that nothing so effectively obtains, retains and regains grace, as that we should always be found not high-minded before God, but filled with holy fear.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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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.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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He rightly reads scripture who turns words into deeds.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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As patience leads to peace, and study to science, so are humiliations the path that leads to humility.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful they are prudent they are powerful Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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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
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Let no one believe that he has received the divine kiss, if he knows the truth without loving it or loves it without understanding it. But blessed is that kiss whereby not only is God recognized but also the Father is loved for there is never full knowledge without perfect love.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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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.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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God will become visible as God's image is reborn in you.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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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.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. For a canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, but a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, and thus communicates, without loss to itself, its superabundant water. In the Church at the present day, we have many canals, few reservoirs.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Nothing can work me damage except myself. The harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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He won me over entirely by giving Himself entirely to me.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Understanding is the sure and clear knowledge of some invisible thing.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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You wish to see listen. Hearing is a step toward Vision.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Action and contemplation are very close companions they live together in one house on equal terms. Martha and Mary are sisters.
Bernard of Clairvaux
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The more I contemplate God, the more God looks on me. The more I pray to him, the more he thinks of me too.
Bernard of Clairvaux