Quotes from Bonaventure

Every creature is a divine word because it proclaims God

To know much and taste nothing-of what use is that?

Come, let us give a little time to folly... and even in a melancholy day let us find time for an hour of pleasure.

Any old woman can love God better than a doctor of theology can.

Strange, then, is the blindness of the intellect, which does not consider that which it sees first and without which it can know nothing.

was whispered unto his spirit that spiritual merchandise hath its beginning in the contempt of the world, and that the warfare of Christ is to be begun by victory over self.

it was whispered unto his spirit that spiritual merchandise hath its beginning in the contempt of the world, and that the warfare of Christ is to be begun by victory over self.

and, by the merits of the Mother of Mercy, he did himself conceive and give birth unto the spirit of Gospel truth.

I had liefer that thou shouldst strip the altar of the glorious Virgin, when our need demandeth it, than that thou shouldst attempt aught, be it but a little thing, against our vow of poverty and the observance of the Gospel. For the Blessed Virgin would be better pleased that her altar should be despoiled, and the counsel of the Holy Gospel perfectly fulfilled, than that her altar should be adorned, and the counsel given by her Son set aside.

The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.

Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.

It maketh God man, and man God; things temporal, eternal; mortal, immortal; it maketh an enemy a friend, a servant a son, vile things glorious, cold hearts fiery, and hard thing liquid.

Although you feel tepid, approach with confidence, for the greater your infirmity the more you stand in need of a physician.