“Love is enough on its own; it pleases by itself and on its own account. Love is its own merit and its own reward. Love needs no cause, no fruit besides itself; its enjoyment is its use. I love because I love; I love that I may love. Love is a great thing; as long as it returns to its Beginning, goes back to its Origin, turns again to its Source, it will always draw afresh from It and flow freely.” ~ Bernard of Clairvaux
Beautiful.
Thanks, Stephen.
I can see why you like this quotation. I wasn’t familiar with Bernard of Clairvaux, so I did some Internet searching and found other similar quotations from him. But I also came across one that I don’t agree with; here’s an approximate English translation of the French version that I found (although i imagine the original was in Latin): “In the various levels of pride, claim curiosity as the first, because we find in it the beginning of all sin.” In contrast, I see curiosity as generally a good thing, although I’ll grant that on the negative side it may amount to meddling in other people’s business and lead to gossip-mongering. But where would our great discoveries be if people hadn’t gotten curious and followed up on their curiosity?
I don’t know much about Bernard of Clairvaux, either. Although I did run across him twice in the last week — this quote, and then late yesterday, in an article about Hildegard of Bingen — apparently he encouraged her to write her mystical works.
I agree with you, rather than Bernard’s quote about curiosity. I think it is curiosity that causes people, especially doubters, to be seekers of the spiritual. I’m sure that would be very frightening to medieval clerics who wanted people to just take things “on faith”. Would love to have the original French, which I might be able to translate; the Latin, not so much.
I found some French versions at:
http://www.mon-poeme.fr/citations-saint-bernard-de-clairvaux/
http://www.evene.fr/celebre/biographie/saint-bernard-de-clairvaux-14181.php?citations
http://www.dicocitations.com/citation.php?id=448
Merci!
Perfect quote! Thank you!
Thanks, Catherine. I’ve been enjoying your blog.