Quotes from Thomas Traherne

Sure Man was born to meditate on things, And to contemplate the eternal springs Of God and Nature, glory, bliss and pleasure: That life and love might be his eternal treasure.

I will not by the noise of bloody wars and the dethroning of kings advance you to glory: but by the gentle ways of peace and love.

The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God.

Souls are God's jewels.

To think well is to serve God in the interior court.

This visible world is wonderfully to be delighted in, and highly to be esteemed, because it is the theatre of God's righteous Kingdom.

Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.

To think the world therefore a general Bedlam, or place of madmen, and oneself a physician, is the most necessary point of present wisdom: an important imagination, and the way to happiness.

Natural things are glorious, and to know them is glorious.

Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.

Principles are like a seed in the ground; they must continually be visited with heavenly influences or else your life will be a barren field.

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.

Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven: see yourself in your Father's palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as celestial joys: having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the angels.

This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited, and the everlasting duration of infinite space is another region and room of joys.

You are as prone to love as the sun is to shine; it being the most delightful and natural employment of the soul of humans.

To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious.

The Soul is shriveled up and buried in a grave that does not love.

We love we know not what, and therefore everything allures us.

Had we not loved ourselves at all, we could never have been obliged to love anything. So that self-love is the basis of all love.

An empty book is like an infant's soul, in which anything may be written. It is capable of all things, but containeth nothing. I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders.

You never know yourself till you know more than your body.

Be sensible of your wants, that you maybe sensible of your treasures.

More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.

As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well.