“Man dies in despair while the Spirit dies in ecstasy.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Quotes from book
Séraphîta
Honoré de Balzac
Original title
Séraphîta
(French, 1834)
Séraphîta is a French novel by Honoré de Balzac with themes of androgyny. It was published in the Revue de Paris in 1834. In contrast with the realism of most of the author's best known works, the story delves into the fantastic and the supernatural to illustrate philosophical themes.
“Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
“The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are within us.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 4: The Clouds of the Sanctuary.
“Wisdom is the understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
“Clouds signify the veil of the Most High.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 4: The Clouds of the Sanctuary.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 6: The Road to Heaven.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
“Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world.”
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Context: Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 2: Seraphita.
Context: If we study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment — giving to that word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the only force that exists and which includes all others, namely Motion, the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe.
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Context: Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit.
