Flores seu sententiae ex S. Bernardo
by Anonymous
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/183/flores-seu-sententiae-ex-s-bernardo/
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## Flowers, or Sentences, from St. Bernard

[1197B] *1569* Chastity is in peril amid delights, humility amid riches, piety amid business, truth amid much speaking, charity in this wicked world. [f: *De convers. ad cler., num.* 37]

Nothing is more precious than time; but, alas! nothing today is reckoned cheaper. [f: *Tr. de cont. mun. ad cler., n.* 55]

The days of salvation pass, and no one thinks of it again; no one pleads that moments which will not return have perished for him. [f: *Ibid.*]

Nothing is so hard that it does not yield to something harder. [f: IV, *De consid., c.* 3.] Hence habit is conquered by habit.

Charge to yourself whatever you suffer from him who can do nothing without you. [f: IV *De cons. n.* 9.]

The scorpion has nothing in its face for you to dread, but it stings from the tail. [f: *Ibid.*]

[1197C]What good is it to be wise, if you have not been wise for yourself? [f: II, *De consid.* 2.]

All things are lacking to him who thinks that nothing is lacking to him. [f: *Lib.* II, *De consid. cap.* 7.]

An ape on the roof — a foolish king sitting on the throne. [f: *Ibid.*]

Keep the middle, if you do not wish to lose measure. [f: II, *De consid. cap.* 10.]

Prosperity is to the incautious what fire is to wax, and the sun's ray to snow. [f: II, *De consid. cap.* 12.]

It is no great thing to be humble in abasement; humility that is honored is a rare virtue. [f: *Hom. 4 sup. miss.*]

There is no truer misery than false gladness. [f: *De lib. arb., n.* 14.]

We are plainly convicted of willing what would not happen if we did not will it. [1197D] [f: *Ibid.*]

A mind poured out abroad does not feel its inward losses. [f: *De conv. ad. cler., cap. 4, n.* 5.]

To flee persecution is not the fault of the one fleeing, but of the one persecuting. [f: *Epist.* 1.]

The will is held for the deed, where necessity shuts out the deed. [f: *Tract. ad Hugon., n.* 9.]

[1198B]No one deserves anger more than an enemy feigning to be a friend. [f: *De conv. n.* 33.]

There is no reason for those to fear thieves who lay up treasure for themselves in heaven. [f: *De conv. ad cler., n.* 41.]

He does not please who is not himself pleasing. [f: *Ibid.,* 33.]

The mother of the insolence of clerics is the negligence of bishops. [f: *Epist.* 152.]

One ought to humor one's friends, but not to one's own death. [f: *Epist.* 215.]

If the water of a river begins to stand still, it rots. [f: *Serm. 1 de Quadrag.*]

All things that are in the world have an end; but their end will not be an end. [f: *Serm. 9 in Cant.*]

You will give to your voice the voice of power, if you have first persuaded yourself of what you urge. [f: *Serm. 6 in Cant., n.* 3.]

[1198C]I gladly hear the voice of that teacher who stirs not applause for himself, but lamentation in me. [f: *Ibid.*]

The voice of the turtledove does not sound sweetly, but it signifies sweet things. *Namely, love of its mate.* [f: *Ibid.*]

Will you or will you not, the Jebusite dwells within your borders: he can be subjugated, but not exterminated. [f: *Serm. 57 in Cant., num.* 10.]

It is little to have pruned once; one must prune often — indeed, always. [f: *Ibid.*] *For the vices [sic: idemtidem] sprout.*

Virtue cannot grow together with the vices; let cupidity be pruned, that virtue may be strengthened. [f: *Ibid.*]

Take away what is superfluous, and wholesome things rise up. Whatever you take from cupidity accrues to usefulness. [f: *Ibid.*]

[1198D]A shepherd who is learned but not good does not so much nourish by his rich teaching as harm by his barren life. [f: *Serm. 76 in Cant., num.* 10.]

Ambition that has obtained its wishes does *sometimes* less harm than ambition frustrated. [f: *Epist. 126:*] *For it turns to violent means.*

*1570* To hearing or reading the song of love [1199A] he comes in vain who does not love. [f: *Serm. 79 in Cant., n.* 1.]

A cold breast cannot take in fiery speech. [f: *Ibid.*] *Just as one who does not know Greek does not understand a man speaking Greek.*

Reputation cannot claim for virtue what conscience convicts of being vice. [f: *Serm. 71 in Cant., n.* 2.]

Virtue is content with the brightness of conscience, even if the fragrance of reputation does not follow. [f: *Ibid.*]

Many things which you spit out when idle, you will take up with longing after labor. [f: *Epist. 1, n.* 11.] *For hunger is the best seasoning of food.*

The enemy presses more boldly from behind than he withstands you to the face. [f: *Ibid., n.* 12.]

[1199B]To do evil, even at anyone's command, is not obedience but disobedience. [f: *Epist. 7. n.* 3.] *Namely, toward God.*

Whatever each man worships above the rest, he is shown to have set up as his God. [f: *Tract. de contempt. mund. ad cler., cap. 5, num.* 17.]

Many would not run to honors with such eagerness, if they felt that they are also burdens. [f: *Tract. de off. episc., cap.* 7.]

Would that the Noahs of our day might leave us something whereby they might be covered by us. [f: *Ibid., n. 19, cap.* 8.] *So openly and shamelessly is sin now committed.*

For one set on high, not to be high-minded is difficult. [f: *Ibid.*]

If it delights you to be higher rather than better, expect not a reward but a headlong fall. [f: *Epist. 27 ad*] [1199C] *Ardut.*

It is foolish to store up treasure in a place from which you cannot take it back when you wish. [f: *Tract. de off. episc., cap.* 5.]

Tribulation proves what each man's faith is. [f: *Ibid., c.* 4.]

He who is commanded to love his neighbor by his own measure should know first how to love himself. [f: *Ibid., cap. 4, n.* 13.]

To repent of evils, and to abstain from evils, makes the conscience good. [f: *Ibid., cap.* 4.]

Physicians use the same knife for cutting kings as for common men. [f: *Ibid., cap.* 2.]

It belongs to the good shepherd not to seek his own, but to spend himself. [f: IV, *De consid., cap.* 2.]

Stewardship without necessity and usefulness is not faithful [1199D] stewardship, but cruel squandering. [f: III, *De consid., cap.* 4.]

Since all men have you, be also yourself one of those who have you. [f: *Lib.* I *De consid., cap. 5. n.* 6.]

A lover sometimes seems out of his mind — but only to one who does not love. [f: *Praefat.* in lib. *De consid.*]

The measure of loving God is to love without measure. [f: *Tract. de dilig. Deo, cap. 1 et* 6.]

I do not approve a man who knows many things, if he has not known the measure of knowing. [f: *Serm. 36 in Cant., n.* 3.]

There are those who wish to know only that they may know; and this is curiosity.

There are those who wish to know that they themselves may be known; and this is vanity.

[1200A]There are those who wish to know that they may sell their knowledge; and this is shameful gain.

There are those who wish to know that they may be built up; and this is prudence. [f: *Serm. 36 in Cant., n.* 3.]

For one who takes food and does not digest it, it is ruinous to him. [f: *Ibid., n.* 4.]

Without the light of discretion, he who runs runs headlong. [f: *Serm. in Circumcis.*]

He cannot but be good who pleases the good, or displeases the wicked. [f: *Epist.* 148.]

It is not safe to take sleep with a serpent nearby. [f: *Ep.* 241.]

Friendship indeed has its rebuke now and then, but flattery never. [f: *Epist.* 242.]

It is better that one perish than unity. [f: *Epist.*] [1200B] *102. He who troubles concord is to be cast out.*

*1571* The only cause for which it is not lawful to obey parents is God. [f: *Epist.* 111.]

Once the spirit has been tasted, the flesh must lose its savor. [f: *Ibid.*]

The heart of man is no more sated with gold than the body with air. [f: *De conv. ad cler.*]

The proof of pride is the withdrawal of grace. [f: *Serm. 54 in Cant.*]

There is an eye at hand to which all things lie open, though it does not itself lie open. [f: *Serm. 55 in Cant.*]

A good man is never deceived except by the appearance of good. [f: *Serm. 66 in Cant.*]

Let heretics be caught not by arms, but by arguments. [f: *Serm. 64 in Cant.*] --See the notes, *ibid.*

Light is pleasant to a man, but more so to one emerging from darkness. [1200C] [f: *Serm. 68 in Cant.*]

Learning without love puffs up; love without learning goes astray. [f: *Serm. 69 in Cant.*]

The day makes plain what the night hides. [f: *Serm. 75 in Cant.*]

It is better that scandal arise than that truth be abandoned. [f: *Epist.* 78.]

He who sets himself up as his own master subjects himself as a disciple to a fool. [f: *Epist.* 87.]

In like deeds, an unlike cause refuses a like judgment. [f: *Epist.* 84.]

Nothing is so inglorious as to be caught being greedy for glory. [f: *Epist.* 106.]

To one hoping for great things, moderate things are wont to come as less welcome. [f: *Epist.* 153.]

[1200D]He does not overtake the runner who does not himself run also. [f: *Epist. 254, n.* 4.]

To be unwilling to advance is to fall back. [f: *Ibid.*]

No one does well unwillingly, even if what he does is good. [f: *Epist.* 258.]

Great is he who, falling into adversity, does not fall away from wisdom. [f: II. *De consid., cap.* 12.]

The dog guards the hay which he does not eat. [f: *Epist. 311, num.* 1.]

If you are wise, you will show yourself a basin, not a channel. [f: *Serm. 18 in Cant., num.* 3,] *that is, You will not pour out before you yourself abound.*

Persecution distinguishes shepherds from hirelings. [f: *De conv. ad cler., cap.* 22.]

[1201A]The ignominy of the cross is welcome to him who is not unthankful to the Crucified. [f: *Serm. 25 in Cant., n.* 8.]

To be always with a woman, and not to sin with the woman, is more than to raise the dead. [f: *Serm. 65 in Cant., n.* 4.]

A familiar master rears a foolish servant. [f: *Serm. cont. vit. ingrat.*]

It belongs to the divine clemency to deny the ungrateful what they ask. [f: *Ibid.*] *Namely, lest they become guilty of greater ingratitude.*

He swims pleasantly whose chin another holds up. [f: *Serm. 12 in Cant., num.* 8.]

God loads us when he unloads us; he loads us with a benefit when he unloads us of sin. [f: *Serm. 15 in psal.: Qui habitat, num.* 1.]

[1201B]Let us strive to please all men in all things, but most of all him who is greatest above all things. [f: *Ibid., n.* 4.]

Empty is the excuse of human obedience, where transgression against God is proved to have been committed. [f: *Epist. 7, n.* 8.]

Who would believe a wall, if it said that it was giving birth to the ray which it received through the window? [f: *Serm. 3 in Cant., n.* 5.]

A praiseworthy painting, or writing, is not the praise of the pen. [f: *Ibid., n. 6, Serm. 18 de div.*]

He is wise to whom each thing tastes as it is.

No itching of the eye is so grievous as envy is. [f: *Serm. 5 de verb. Isa., n.* 10.]

In earth we are born, in earth we die, returning into that from which we were taken. [f: *Serm. de S. Mart., n.* 1.]

To give the goods of the poor to those who are not poor is judged a crime equal to sacrilege. [f: *Tract. de cont. mun. ad*] [1201C] *cler., n.* 21.

You have obtained a higher place, but not a safer one. [f: *Epist.* 237.]

As not everything that pleases is lawful, so not everything that is lawful is expedient. [f: *Epist.* 25.]

When a man's life is despised, it remains that his preaching too be held in contempt. [f: *Serm. 1, Pasch., n.* 10.]

*1572* It does not sufficiently grieve a man to have fallen, while he still stands on slippery ground. [f: *Serm. 1 in Pasch., n.* 16.]

The sign of true compunction is the withdrawal of the occasion. [f: *Ibid.*]

Ruinous poverty is a scarcity of merits; but presumption is deceitful riches. [f: *Serm. 68 in Cant., n.* 6.]

Ignorance cannot excuse the man who professes himself a master [1201D] of little children. [f: *Tract. de cont. mun. ad cler., cap. 5, n.* 15.]

He is convicted of being unworthy of the milk and the wool who does not feed the sheep. [f: *Ibid.,* 20.]

Woe to you, cleric! death is in the pots [sic: *earnium*], death is in delights. [f: *Ibid., n.* 20.] *For you eat the sins of the people.*

Woe to those who, living in the flesh, cannot please God, and yet presume to appease him. [f: *De conv. ad cler.*]

Zeal without knowledge, while it hastens to profit, is found to harm. [f: *Ibid., n.* 38.]

Whatever is less than God will not fill a soul capable of God. [f: *De cont. mun., n.* 33.]

He who leaps before he sees will fall before he ought. [f: *Ibid.,* 26.]

[1202A]A sick man who does not feel himself sick suffers more dangerously. [f: I, *De cons., c.* 1.]

If a man flees labor, he does not do that for which he was born. [f: *De contemp. ad cler., n.* 29.]

It happens to wise men that in doubtful matters they trust another's judgment more than their own. [f: *Epist. 82, n.* 1.]



## Flowers, or Sentences, from St. Bernard (cont.)

Gladly will I go without any spiritual gain, however great, which cannot be acquired except with scandal. [f: *Epist.* 82.]

It is a fair and wholesome order that you should first carry yourself the burden which you lay on another to carry. [f: *Epist. 221, n.* 3.]

The power of the voice is the deed; but prayer earns grace and effectiveness both for the deed and for the voice. [f: *Ibid.*]

A false Catholic does more harm than a true heretic. [f: *Serm. 65 in Cant., n.* 4.]

It is no unprofitable exchange to have left all things for the sake of him who is [1202B] above all things. [f: *Tract. de cont. mun. ad cler., c.* 1.]

The coveting of the world does more harm than its substance. [f: *Ibid.*]

The reason for fleeing riches is that they can scarcely, or never, be possessed without love of them. [f: *Ibid.*]

The human heart easily clings to everything it frequents. [f: *Ibid.*]

He who purposes to leave all things should remember to number himself also among the things to be left. [f: *Ibid., n.* 2.]

True love has its reward — but that reward is the thing loved. [f: *Tract. de dilig. Deo, n.* 17.]

If one of the people goes astray, he perishes alone; the error of a prince involves many. [f: *Epist.* 117.]

True joy is that which is conceived not from the creature, but [1202C] from the Creator. [f: *Epist.* 114.]

The vicious man does not shun the consciences of the vicious. [f: I, *De consid., cap.* 10.]

Where all are filthy, the stench of one is not noticed. [f: *Ibid.*]

To those who dwell on them, honors are alluring; to those who weigh them, they are a thing of dread. [f: *Tract. de off. et mor. episc., cap.* 7.]

True charity is not empty of reward, and yet it is not mercenary. [f: *Tract. de dilig. Deo, n.* 17.]

He keeps a good stronghold who guards his own body. [f: *Serm. 2 de Assumpt., num* 2.] *A common proverb.*

Misery alone is free from envy. [f: *Serm 5 de verb. Isa.*]

Cursed is he who makes his own portion worse. [1202D] [f: Lib. I *De consid. cap. 5, et serm. de septem panib.*]

He gives his hand to the seducer who makes a pretense of giving it to his teacher. [f: *Serm. 77 in Cant.*]

He who lets the sheep go into the pastures without a keeper is a shepherd not of sheep but of wolves. [f: *Ibid., num.* 6.]

The life of the poor is sown in the streets of the rich. [f: IV, *De cons., cap.* 2.]

Ambition, the cross of the ambitious, tormenting all, pleases all. [f: III, *De consid., cap.* 1.]

Trifles in the mouth of a layman are trifles; in the mouth of a priest they are blasphemies. [f: Lib. II, *De consid., cap.* 15.]

A vain heart forces the mark of vanity upon the body. [f: *Apol. ad Guil., cap.* 9.]

Soft garments indicate softness of mind. [f: *Ibid.*]

[1203A]The Church shines in her walls, and goes cold in her poor. [f: *Apol. ad Guil., cap.* 11.]

*1573* At the expense of the needy, the eyes of the rich are served. [f: *Ibid.*]

I fear the teeth of the wolf more than the rod of the shepherd. [f: *Tract. de vita et off. episc., n.* 35.]

Hippocrates teaches men to save their souls in this world; Christ, to lose them. [f: *Serm. 35 in Cant.*]

The pleasure of the throat, which today is reckoned at so high a price, scarcely takes up the breadth of two fingers. [f: *De conv. ad cler., n.* 13.]

The insatiable love of riches torments far more by desire than it cools by use. [f: *Ibid.,* 14.]

The use of riches falls to others, generally; to the rich falls only the name and the anxiety. [f: *Ibid.*]

[1203B]The demon lies in wait chiefly for perseverance alone, which alone of the virtues he knows to be crowned. [f: *Epist.* 24.]

A guard upon the mouth is always useful — provided it does not shut out the grace of affability. [f: IV, *De consid., cap. 6, n.* 23.]

The headlong tongue is to be bridled everywhere, but most of all at a banquet. [f: *Ibid.*]

That [sic: *babitus*] is more fitting, if you are severe indeed in act, serene in countenance, and grave in word. [f: *Ibid.*]

There is no need of ladders for one who already holds the throne. [f: V, *De consid., n.* 1.]

To disparage, or to listen to one disparaging — which of these is the more damnable, I could not easily say. [f: II, *De consid., n.* 22.]

Deliberating foresight holds judgment in suspense. *Serm.* [1203C] [f: *de S. Magdal., n.* 1,] now in volume V.

Religious sorrow mourns either another's sin or its own. [f: *Ibid., n.* 2.]

[1204A]Learn from those things which he was made for you, how highly God has valued you. [f: *Serm. 1 de Epiph.*]

*1574* It is the utmost madness that we are unashamed toward obscene things, and blush at penitence: wrongly prone to wounds, and bashful toward remedies. [f: *Serm. in Circumc.*]

For the sake of preserving humility, the divine mercy is wont so to order things that the more a man advances, the less he reckons himself to have advanced. [f: *Serm. 15 de div., n.* 4.]

Both are pleasing to God: the sinner stricken with compunction, and the just man devout; but the ungrateful just man is as displeasing as the sinner untroubled. [f: *Serm. de div.,* 4.]

The healthy man does not know what the sick man feels, nor the full man what the fasting man suffers. [f: *Tract. de grad. hum., n.* 6.]

Humility is a glorious thing — with which pride itself also [1204B] seeks to cloak itself, that it may not become cheap. [f: *Ibid., n.* 47.]

Unhappy is that victory by which, overcoming a man, you succumb to a vice. [f: *Exhor. ad mil., n.* 2.]

The impious walk round about, naturally seeking that by which they may end their appetite, and foolishly spurning that by which they might draw near to the end. [f: *De dilig. Deo, n.* 19.]

The soul that loves God seeks no reward of its love other than God; or if it seeks something else, it loves that, not God. [f: *Ibid., n.* 17.]

By natural desire everyone seeks the highest good. Do you wish to arrive? Begin to leap across. [f: *Tract. de cont. mun. ad cler., n.* 33.] *For if you are entangled in the lowest things, you will not arrive.*

The way is winding, and cannot be walked; you will arrive more easily by despising all things than by obtaining them. [f: *Ibid.,* 33.]

[1204C]A wretched exchange, and full of the utmost madness: to shun human labor, and to choose everlasting gnashing with the devil. [f: *Ibid.,* 27.]
