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Angelus Silesius Quotes

1624–1677 Germany

Angelus Silesius (25 December 1624 – 9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler, also known as the Prophet of the Ineffable, was a German mystic of the Catholic Church, as well as a poet, priest and physician. He adopted the name Angelus (Latin for "messenger") and the surname Silesius (from the Latin for "Silesian") upon converting to Catholicism in 1653.

Germany
Physicians
Poets

Also known as: Silesius, Johann Scheffler, Prophet of the Ineffable, The Prophet of the Ineffable

Random Angelus Silesius quote

48 quotes

Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem – but all in vain until He is born in me.

Without Why
The rose is without why.
It blooms simply because it blooms.
It thinks not of itself,
And no display it show.

How fleeting is this world
yet it survives.
It is ourselves that fade from it
and our ephemeral lives.

In waste God hides the gold, accept what He may send,
The great within the small, though we don't comprehend.

O Man, as long as you exist, know, have, and cherish,
You have not been delivered, believe me, of your burden.

Ah, were men's voices like the wood-birds' melody— Each happy note distinct, but all in harmony!

The nearest way to God
Leads through love's open door;
The path of knowledge is
Too slow for evermore
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Never in endless time will ring a sound as sweetly
As when a human heart in God is tuned completely.

If you know how to launch your ship into God's sea
Oh, what a blessed fate, submerged in it to be
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How fleeting is the world...
Yet it survives
It is ourselves that fade from it
and our ephemeral lives.

No Mediation.
Let mediation go!
If I'm to see my light,
I want before my face
No wall to check my sight.

I know God couldn't live a moment without me; if I should disappear, He would die, destitute

No man has known perfect felicity,
Until his otherness is drowned in unity

[Could but your heart become a manger for his birth,
God would again become a child upon this earth.]

Saints do not die. It is their lot,
To die while on this earth to all that God is not.

The Thought and Deed of Deity
Are of such richness and extent
That It remaineth to Itself
An Undiscovered Continent.

All heaven's glory is within and so is hell's fierce burning.
You must yourself decide in which direction you are turning

God is a flowing well which constantly may pour
Into his whole Creation, and yet be as before.

Two eyes our souls possess:
While one is turned on time,
The other seeth things
Eternal and sublime

A spark without its fire, a drop without its sea,
Without rebirth what more, pray, wouldst thou be?

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Angelus Silesius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.