Frithjof Schuon: Quotes about love

“To fear God is first of all to see, on the level of action, consequences in causes, sanction in sin, suffering in error; to love God is first to choose God, that is to say, to prefer what brings one nearer Him over what estranges from Him.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 102, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

God , Suffering , Love , Fear

“It ought to be possible to restore to the word "philosophy" its original meaning: philosophy − the "love of wisdom" − is the science of all the fundamental principles; this science operates with intuition, which "perceives," and not with reason alone, which "concludes."”

Frithjof Schuon book The Transfiguration of Man

Subjectively speaking, the essence of philosophy is certitude; for the moderns, on the contrary, the essence of philosophy is doubt: the philosopher is supposed to reason without any premise (voraussetzungsloses Denken), as if this condition were not itself a preconceived idea; this is the classical contradiction of all relativism. Everything is doubted except for doubt. The solution to the problem of knowledge − if there is a problem − could not possibly be this intellectual suicide that is the promotion of doubt; on the contrary, it lies in having recourse to a source of certitude that transcends the mental mechanism, and this source − the only one there is − is the pure Intellect, or Intelligence as such.
[2005, The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom, 3, 978-0-94153219-8]
Miscellaneous, Philosophy

Science , Love , Wisdom

“Every virtue is a participation in the Beauty of the One and a response to His Love.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 20, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

Love , Beauty

“The desire to vanquish faults because it is "I" who have them is ineffectual, since it falls within the same category as the faults themselves. Indeed, every fault is a form of egoism or even pride. We must tend towards Perfection because we understand it and therefore love it, and not because we desire that our ego should be perfect. In other terms, we must love and realize a virtue because it is true and beautiful, and not because it would become us if we possessed it; and we must hate and fight against a fault because it is false and ugly, and not because it is ours and because it disfigures us. To possess a virtue is first and foremost to be without the fault which is contrary to it, for God created us virtuous. He created us in His image; faults are superimposed. Moreover it is not we who possess virtue, it is virtue which possesses us.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 65, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

God , Hate , Perfection , Falseness

“Will for the Good and love of the Beautiful are the necessary concomitants of knowledge of the True, and their repercussions are incalculable.”

Frithjof Schuon book The Transcendent Unity of Religions

[1993, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Quest Books, 152, 978-0-8356-0587-8]
Spiritual path, Knowledge

Knowledge , Beauty , Love

“Wisdom consists not only in becoming detached from the reflections, but also in knowing and feeling that the archetypes are to be found within ourselves and are accessible in the depths of our hearts; we possess what we love to the extent that what we love is worthy of being loved.”

Frithjof Schuon book The Transfiguration of Man

[2005, The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom, 109, 978-0-94153219-8]
Spiritual path, Wisdom

Wisdom , Heart , Love , Feeling

“Sacred art helps man find his own center, that kernel whose nature is to love God.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2007, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, World Wisdom, 28, 978-1-933316-42-0]
Spiritual life, Sacred art

God , Help , Art , Nature

“Love of the sacred implies love of God, and inversely, the sacred is the perfume of Heaven.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2016, La conscience de l’Absolu, Hozhoni, 60, 978-2-37241-020-5]
Spiritual life, Sense of the sacred

God , Love

“Truth and Holiness: all values are in these two terms; all that we must love and all that we must be.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 224, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Truth

Truth , Love

“The beautiful is not that which we love and because we love it, but that which by its objective value obliges us to love it.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2006, Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, World Wisdom, 96, 978-1-933316-28-4]
God, Beauty

Beauty , Love

“One cannot love God without fearing him, any more than one can love one's neighbor without respecting him; not to fear God is to prevent Him showing mercy.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 102, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

God , Love , Fear

“Love of God is firstly the attachment of the intelligence to the Truth, then the attachment of the will to the Good, and finally the attachment of the soul to the Peace that is given by the Truth and the Good.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 9, 978-1-93659700-0]
God, Reverential fear and love

Soul , God , Peace , Intelligence

“To love God does not mean to cultivate a sentiment − that is to say, something we enjoy without knowing whether God enjoys it − but to eliminate from the soul what prevents God from entering it.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 93, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

Soul , God , Love

“If we must love God, and love him more than ourselves and our neighbor, it is because love exists before us and because we are issued from it; we love by virtue of our very existence.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2005, Stations of Wisdom, World Wisdom, 94, 978-0-94153218-1]
God, Reverential fear and love

God , Love