Top 100 Bernard of Clairvaux Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The measure of love is love without measure.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

2. “There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

3. “We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place in ourselves for those who love us.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

4. “What we love we shall grow to resemble.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

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5. “Action and contemplation are very close companions; they live together in one house on equal terms. Martha and Mary are sisters.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

6. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

7. “All things are possible to one who believes.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

8. “The three most important virtues are humility, humility, and humility.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

9. “The Eucharist is that love which surpasses all loves in Heaven and on earth.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

10. “First learn to love yourself, and then you can love me.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

11. “Spiritual life is like living water that springs up from the very depths of our own spiritual experience. In spiritual life everyone has to drink from his or her own well.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

12. “Death is the gate of life.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

13. “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

14. “Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love in order that I may love.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

15. “There is no greater misery than false joys.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

16. “God will either give us what we ask, or what He knows to be better for us.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

17. “What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scriptures, I learned in woods and fields. I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

18. “Your actions in passing, pass not away, for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

19. “True love does not demand a reward, but it deserves one.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

20. “Grace is necessary to salvation, free will equally so – but grace in order to give salvation, free will in order to receive it.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

21. “How beautiful then is modesty and what a gem among virtues it is.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

22. “Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

23. “God will become visible as God’s image is reborn in you.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

24. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

25. “We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

26. “Who loves me will love my dog also.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

27. “The rivers of Grace cannot flow uphill, up the steep cliff of the proud man’s heart.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

28. “Theirs is an endless road, a hopeless maze, who seek for goods before they seek for God.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

29. “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?”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

30. “Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

31. “It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

32. “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

33. “Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

34. “Slander is a poison which kills charity, both in the slanderer and the one who listens.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

35. “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

36. “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.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

37. “To serve Mary is a mark of eternal salvation to come.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

38. “Prayer is a virtue that prevaileth against all temptations.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

39. “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.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

40. “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.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

41. “Expect much of God, and he will do much for you.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

42. “If you concentrate hard on the state you are in, it would be suprising if you have time for anything else.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

43. “I know by myself how incomprehensible God is, seeing I cannot comprehend the parts of my own being.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

44. “O wretched slaves of Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ while you trust in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and see how gracious the Lord is, while you are hungering for gold.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

45. “Love is sufficient for itself; it gives pleasure to itself, and for its own sake. It is its own merit and own reward. Love needs no cause beyond itself, nor does it demand fruits; it is its own purpose.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

46. “You wish to see; listen. Hearing is a step toward Vision.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

47. “Therefore gird yourselves manfully and take up joyful arms for the name of God.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

48. “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

49. “Hell is full of good wishes or desires.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux

50. “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.”

— Bernard of Clairvaux