Dear children, my whole teaching is very simple: whatsoever hinders you from the shortest road to perfection, get rid of it– whether it be in your soul or in your outward life, and no matter what name it may go by.
–Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
Verily, if you desire to have the Creator of all creatures, you must renounce all creatures; for it cannot be otherwise, but only insomuch as your soul is emptied and bared; the less of the creature, the more of God.
–Johannes Tauler (1300–1361)
Just as the artist foresees in his mind how he will make each stroke of the brush on the canvas—how short or long or wide (and there is no other way if the painting is to become a masterpiece!) where he should use red or blue—so God does the same, and a thousand times more, in our lives through much suffering and many strokes of color. He does so in order to achieve in us the masterpiece that pleases him the most, so long as we truly embrace these gifts—these bitter circumstances—from him.
— Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
Not every quiet man is humble, but every humble man is quiet.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
What salt is for any food, humility is for every virtue.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
A heart hard and unmerciful will never be pure.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
