C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
St. Bernard
I know by myself how incomprehensible God is, seeing I cannot comprehend the parts of my own being.
“My burden is light,” said the blessed Redeemer, a light burden indeed, which carries him that bears it. I have looked through all nature for a resemblance of this, and seem to find a shadow of it in the wings of a bird, which are indeed borne by the creature, and yet support her night towards heaven.
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.
Slander is a poison which extinguishes charity, both in the slanderer and in the person who listens to it; so that a single calumny may prove fatal to an infinite number of souls; since it kills not only those who circulate it, but also all those who do not reject it.
The peacemakers shall be called the sons of God, who came to make peace between God and man. What then shall the sowers of discord be called, but the children of the devil? And what must they look for but their father’s portion?
The tears of penitents are the wine of angels.
You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.