“What of the souls already released from their bodies? We believe that they are overwhelmed in that vast sea of eternal light and of luminous eternity”

—  Bernard of Clairvaux

From, On Loving of God, Paul Halsall trans., Ch. 11

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What of the souls already released from their bodies? We believe that they are overwhelmed in that vast sea of eternal …" by Bernard of Clairvaux?
Bernard of Clairvaux photo
Bernard of Clairvaux 24
French abbot, theologian 1090–1153

Related quotes

Sallustius photo

“It is the natural duty of souls to do their work in the body; are we to suppose that when once they leave the body they spend all eternity in idleness?”

Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer

XX. On Transmigration of Souls, and how Souls are said to migrate into brute beasts.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: It is the natural duty of souls to do their work in the body; are we to suppose that when once they leave the body they spend all eternity in idleness? Again, if the souls did not again enter into bodies, they must either be infinite in number or God must constantly be making new ones. But there is nothing infinite in the world; for in a finite whole there cannot be an infinite part. Neither can others be made; for everything in which something new goes on being created, must be imperfect. And the world, being made by a perfect author, ought naturally to be perfect.

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“I find that any luminous body when seen through a dense and thick mist diminishes in proportion to its distance from the eye. Thus it is with the sun by day, as well as the moon and the other eternal lights by night. And when the air is clear, these luminaries appear larger in proportion as they are farther from the eye.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), IV Perspective of Disappearance

Warren Zevon photo

“We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven.”

Warren Zevon (1947–2003) American singer-songwriter

"The Indifference of Heaven"
Mutineer (1995)

Averroes photo

“Come the Day of Judgment, some believe that the body will be different from our present body. This is only transient, that will be eternal. For this also there are religious arguments.”

Averroes book On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy

Pat 5: The Day of Judgment; Opening sentence
On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy

Halldór Laxness photo

“Hauling fish from the sea—what endless toil. One could almost say, what an eternal problem.”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Three: The House of the Poet

Arthur Rimbaud photo

“It is found again.
What? Eternity.
It is the sea
Gone with the sun.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Elle est retrouvée,
Quoi ?
L'Éternité.
C'est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
L'Éternité (1872)
Variant translation:
It has been recovered.
What? — Eternity.
It is the sea escaping
With the sun.
Source: آرتور رامبو: الآثار الشعرية

Terence McKenna photo

“We are being sucked into the body of eternity.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Terrence McKenna's "2012 Eternity" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkSxKGkNs6M

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“I cannot believe that there is any being in this universe who has created a human soul for eternal pain. I would rather that every god would destroy himself; I would rather that we all should go to eternal chaos, to black and starless night, than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

What Must We Do To Be Saved? (1880) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38801/38801-h/38801-h.htm Section X, "The Evangelical Alliance."

“It seems that the evolutionist must conclude, along with the writer Vladimir Nabokov, that ‘our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness’. Brains that think otherwise – brains that deny they are brains and believe instead that they are eternal souls - are brains that hold false beliefs about themselves.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010), p. 150

Arthur Rimbaud photo

“Eternity is the sun
mixed
with the sea”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Related topics