Marguerite Porete Quotes

“They have no shame, no honor, no fear for what is to
come. They are secure, says Love. Their doors are open. No one can harm them.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love: Such a Soul, says Love, swims in the sea of joy, that is in the sea of delights flowing and streaming from the Divinity, and she feels no joy, for she herself is joy, and so she swims and flows in joy without feeling any joy, for she dwells in joy and joy dwells in her; for through the power of joy she is herself joy, which has changed her into itself.
Now they have one common will, like fire and flame, the will of the lover and that of the beloved, for love has changed this Soul into itself.

The Soul: Ah, sweetest, pure, divine Love, says this Soul, how sweet is this changing by which I am changed into the thing that i love better than I love myself! And I am so changed that i have therein lost my name for the sake of loving, I who can love so little; and I am changed into that which I love more than myself, that is, into Love, for I love nothing but Love.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“First, that we should love God with our whole heart—that is to say that our thoughts should always be truly directed towards him: and with our whole soul, that is that we should say nothing but what is true, even though we die for it: and with our whole strength, that is that we should perform all our works solely for him; and that we should love ourselves as we ought, that is that doing so we should not look to our advantage but to the perfect will of God: and that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, 3 that is that we should not do or think or say towards our neighbors anything we would not wish them to do to us. These precepts are necessary to all men for their salvation: 4 by no lesser manner of life can anyone have grace.”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love. This daughter of Sion1 does not long for Masses or sermons, or fastings or prayers. Reason. And why, Lady Love? says Reason. These are the food of holy souls. Love. That is true, says Love, for those who beg; but this Soul begs for nothing, for she has no need to long for anything which is outside her. Now listen, Reason, says Love. Why should this Soul long for those things which I have just named, since God is everywhere, just as much without them as with them? This Soul has no thought, no word, no work, except for employing the grace of the divine Trinity. 2 This Soul feels no disquiet for any sins which she once committed, 3 nor for the suffering which God underwent for her, nor for the sins and the troubles in which her neighbors live. Reason. Oh God, what does this mean, Love? says Reason. Teach me to understand this, since you have reassured me about my other questions. Love. It means, says Love, that this Soul is not her own, and so she can feel no disquiet; for her thought is at rest in a place of peace, that is in the Trinity, and therefore she cannot move from there, nor feel disquiet, so long as her beloved is untroubled. But that anyone falls into sin, or that sin was ever committed, Love replies to Reason, this is displeasing to her will just as it is to God: for it is his own displeasure which gives such displeasure to this Soul. But none the less, says Love, in spite of such displeasure there is no disquiet in the Trinity, nor is there in such a Soul who is at rest within the Trinity. But if this Soul, who is in such exalted rest, could help her neighbors, she would help them in their need with all her might. But the thoughts of such Souls are so divine that they do not dwell upon past4 or created things, so as to apprehend disquiet in themselves, for God is good beyond all comprehending.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love is no destruction, but rather instruction, nourishment and sustenance for those who trust in it, for Love is repletion and the abyss and the fullness of the sea.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Reason. And who are you, Love? says Reason. Are you not also one of the Virtues, and one of us, even though you be above us? Love. I am God, says Love, for Love is God, and God is Love, 1 and this Soul is God through its condition of Love, and I am God through my divine nature, and this Soul is God by Love’s just law. 2 So that this my precious beloved is taught and guided by me, without herself, for she has been changed into me. And this is the outcome, says Love, of being nourished by me.”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“This Soul, says Love, has six wings, 4 just as the Seraphim. She no longer wishes for anything which comes by an intermediary, for that is the proper state of being of the Seraphim; 5 there is no intermediary between their love and God’s love. Love is constantly made new in them6 without any intermediaries, and so too in this Soul, for she does not seek for knowledge of God among the teachers of this world, but by truly despising this world and herself. Ah, God, how great is the difference between the gift that a lover makes to his loved one through an intermediary, and the gift made directly to his loved one by a lover!”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Now listen, Reason, says Love, to understand better what you are asking about. A man who is on fire feels no cold, a man who is drowning knows no thirst. Now this Soul, says Love, is so burned in Love’s fiery furnace that she has become very fire, so that she feels no fire, for in herself she is fire, through the power of Love which has changed her into the fire of Love. This fire burns of and through itself, everywhere, incessantly, without consuming any matter or being able to wish to consume it, except only from itself; for whoever feels some perception of God through matter which he sees or hears outside himself, or through some labor which he there performs of himself is not all fire; rather, there is some matter, together, with the fire. For men’s labors, and their wanting matter outside themselves to make God’s love grow in them, is only a blinding of the knowledge of God’s goodness. But he who burns with this fire without seeking such matter, without having it or wanting to have it, sees all things so clearly that he values them as they must be valued. For such a Soul has no matter in her which prevents her from seeing clearly, so that she is alone in it through the power of true humility; and she is common to all through the generosity of perfect charity, and alone in God, since Perfect Love has taken possession1 of her.”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Charity is obedient1 to no created thing, but only to Love. Charity has nothing of her own, and even if she had anything, she does not say that it is hers at all. Charity abandons her own task and goes off and does that of others. Charity asks no return from any creature, whatever good or happiness she may give. Charity knows no shame or fear or anxiety: she is so upright and true that she cannot bend, whatever happens to her. Charity takes no notice or account of anything under the sun, for the whole world is no more than superfluity and excess. Charity gives to everyone everything that she possesses, and does not withhold even herself, and in addition, she often promises what she does not possess, in her great generosity hoping that the more one gives, the more one will have left.”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love. Meditation of Pure Love has only one intention, that she might always love faithfully without wishing for any reward, and the Soul cannot do this unless she is deprived of herself, for Faithful Love would not deign to have any consolation which came by the Soul’s seeking. Truly not. Meditation of Love knows well that it is for the best1 that she must not exert herself2 except in what is her task, and that is to will perfectly the will of God, and she leaves God to work and to order his will as he pleases; for whoever wills that God might fulfill his wish to experience his comforts does not place his trust solely in God’s goodness, but trusts rather in those”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“These be the wings that she flieth with. And [she] so dwelleth in standing, for she is alway in sight of God; and sitting, for she dwelleth alway in the divine will of God. Whereof should this soul have dread though she be in the world? And [though] the world, the flesh and the enemy, the fiend, and the four elements, the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth tormented her and despised her and devoured her, if it might so be, what might she lose, if God dwelled with her? Oh, is he not Almighty? Yes, without doubt, he is all might, all wisdom, and all goodness: our Father, our brother and our true friend; he is without beginning and shall be without ending, he is without comprehending but of himself, and without end was, is, and shall be, three persons and one God only. "Such is the Beloved of our souls," saith this soul.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“ How this Soul has the name of the change into which Love has changed her. Chapter 83. Love. So such a Soul has no name, and therefore she has the name of the change into which Love has changed her. So do the watercourses of which we have spoken, who are called ‘sea’, for they are all sea as soon as they have returned into the sea. For in the same way no kind of fire can keep any matter separate within it, because it makes of itself and of the matter one thing: not two, but one. So it is with those of whom we speak, for Love draws all their matter into itself. One and the same thing is made of Love and of such Souls, and not two things, for that would be disharmony; but there is one single thing, and so there is harmony.”
― Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love: Ah, Reason, says Love, you will always see with one eye only, you and all those who are nurtured by your doctrine. For the man is indeed one-eyed who sees the things which are before his eyes yet does not know what they are; and this is the case with you.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Reason. Ah, Lady Soul, says Reason, you have two laws, your own and ours; ours for belief and yours for love; and therefore you say to us what you please, and so you have called those whom we nurture7 fools and asses. The Soul. The men whom I call asses, says this Soul, seek God in creatures, through worshipping in churches, in paradises they create, in the words of men and in their writings. Ah, truly, says this Soul, in such men Benjamin is not born, for Rachel still lives8 in them; and Rachel must die at Benjamin’s birth, and till Rachel is dead Benjamin cannot be born. It seems to beginners that men such as these, who seek God in this way, up hill and down dale, think that God is subject to his sacraments and to his works. Alas, they suffer such trials that it is pitiful, 9 and they will go on suffering them, says the Soul, so long as they maintain this way of life and such practices. But those men spend their time well and profitably who do not worship God only in temples and in churches, 10 but worship him everywhere11 through union with the divine will.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Love. This Soul, says Love, is flayed by mortification, and burned by the ardor of the fire of charity, and her ashes are strewn by the nothingness of her will upon the high seas. In prosperity she has the nobility of the well-born, in adversity the nobility of one exalted, in all places, whatever they be, the nobility of the excellent. She who is such2 no longer seeks God through penance or through any sacrament of Holy Church, not through reflections or words or works, not through any creature here below or through any creature there above, not through justice or mercy or the glory of glories, not through divine knowledge or divine love or divine praise.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Reason: Ah, Love, says Reason, when are such Souls in the true freedom of Pure Love?

Love: When they have no longing, no feeling, and at no time any affection of the spirit; for such customs would enslave them, being too far away from the peace of freedom in which few men permit themselves to dwell. And also they do nothing, says Love, which is opposed to the peace of their inner being, and so in peace they bear the orders of Love.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“say of truth, that these souls that be such as this book deviseth, they be so mortified from such wretchedness and so enlumined with grace, and so arrayed with the love of God,, that it quencheth all fleshly sin in them, and driveth mightily down all bodily and ghostly temptations. Thus Love, that is, God the Holy Ghost, worketh graciously in these persons, in whom he holdeth his school and arrayeth them so with fair flowers of his high noblesse, that there may no spots nor blemishes[29] in them abide. N.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“But she doth it without desire and without that kind of usage that she had before, in labouring by outward impulses;[25] but fully she attendeth in all that she may to the usages of love, which be all divine and upward. So whatever this creature doth, it is oned to Love, [so] that it is Love that doth it. And thus she suffereth Love to work in her; therefore this, that Love saith, that these souls "desire not masses nor sermons, fastings nor orisons," it should not be so taken that they should leave [them] undone. He were purblind that would take it in this wise; but all such words in this book must be taken ghostly and divinely. For these souls naught[26] themselves so by very meekness, that they make themselves as no-one, for sin is no-thing, and they hold themselves but sin; therefore in their own beholding they do... naught, but God doth in them his works. Also these souls have no proper will[27]  nor desire, they have wholly planted it in God, so that they may nothing will nor desire, but God willeth in them and maketh them to do his will. Thus they do nothing as in their own sight and judgement, but God doth all thing that good is.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“I answered thee, here before," saith Love, "and still I tell thee that all the masters of natural wit, nor all the masters of scriptures, nor all those that take the lead in love and in obedience of virtues, understand it not; thereof be right sure," saith Love, "but those only, without more, whom fine love so leadeth."[31] "But whoso found such souls, they could tell thee the truth an they would; but I am not in pledge that men may understand it, except only those whom fine love leadeth. This gift is given," saith Love, "sometime in a moment of time. Whoever hath it [let him] keep it, for it is the most perfect gift that God giveth to creatures. This is a scholar of divinity; she sitteth in the valley of meekness and in the plain of truth and in the mountain of love, there she resteth her.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“The second point is that this soul saveth her by faith without works. "Ah, Love," saith Reason, "what is this to say?" "That is," saith Love, "that such a soul that is naughted, hath so great inward knowing, by the virtue of faith, that she is thus called in her inwardness to sustain that which faith hath ministered to her of the might of the Father, of the wisdom of the Son, and of the goodness of the Holy Ghost. [So] that nothing wrought may dwell in her thought but passeth swiftly, for the other calling hath taken the house of this naughted soul. This soul can no more work. Oh soothly she hath enough of faith without work to believe that God is good, without comprehending. Thus she saveth her by faith without work, for faith surmounteth all works [by the] witness of Love herself. M. Holy Writ saith, Unde sapiens justus ex fide vivit.[34] Comprehend! This is to say, that righteous man liveth of faith and so do these souls. But this, "that they save themselves by faith without works," and "that they can no more work," it is not meant that they cease from all good works for evermore, and never do any work, but sit in sloth and idleness of soul and body; for those who take it so, they misunderstand it; but it is thus. God is enhabited in them[35] and worketh in them, and these souls suffer him [to] work his divine works in them. What this work is, and how it is, love showeth it in this book; and whatever the bodies of these souls do of outward[36] deeds, the souls that be thus high set, take not so great regard to these works that they save themselves thereby, but only trust to the goodness of God, and so they save them by faith, and believe not nor trust not in their own works, but in all, in God's goodness.[37] N.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“The sixth point is this, that none may her teach." "Now for God," saith Reason, "Lady Soul, say what this is!" "This is to say," saith Love, "that this soul is of such great knowledge that though she had all the knowing of all the creatures that ever had been and shall be, she would think it naught, as in regard of[39] that which she loveth, which was never known nor never shall be known. She loveth more that which is in God, which was never given nor never shall be given, than she doth that which she hath and which she shall have. For though she had all the knowing that all the creatures have that be and shall be, "It is naught," saith this soul, "as compared to that which is, which may not be said.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“The ninth point," saith Love, "is this, that this soul hath no will."[45] Oh, without fail, no; for all that she willeth in consenting of will, it is that which God wills that she should will. "And that willeth she," saith Love, "in order to fulfil God's will, and not. her own. And this may she not will [in], her [own strength], but it is the will of God that willeth in her, so that this soul hath no will but the will of God, [which] maketh her will all that she ought to will.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all thou hast and give it all to poor and then sue[8] me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“ghostly livers”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“There are two kinds of people who live a life of perfection though works of virtue in spiritual affection.
The first are those who in all things mortify the body, performing the works of charity, and they have such pleasure in their works that they do not perceive that there can be any better state of being than that of works of virtue and a martyr's death, longing to persevere in it through the help of many prayers, always increasing their good intentions, always preserving this way of life, always holding fast as they do to it and convinced as they are that this is the best of all the states of being that can be. Such people, says Love, are blessed, but they become lost in their works, because of the satisfaction which they have in their state of being.
Such people, says Love, are called kings, but that is in a land where men see only with one eye, for truly those who have two eyes consider them as slaves.”
― Marguerite Porete, Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls

“such calls for caution,”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“These souls," saith love, "live of knowing of love and of hearing." This is [the] continual usage of these souls without departing them [therefrom]: for knowing and love and magnifying dwelleth in them. These souls, that be such, cannot find the good nor the evil, nor have knowing of themselves to make judgement whether they be converted or perverted.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“O Soul touched of God, dissevered from sin, in the first estate of grace, ascend by divine grace into the seventh estate of grace, where the soul hath her fullhead of perfection by divine fruition in life of peace. And among you, actives and contemplatives, that to this life may come, hear now some crumbs[1] of the clean love, of the noble love, and of the high love of the free souls, and how the Holy Ghost hath his sail in his ship.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Thus she entereth and walketh in the way of illumination, that she might be taught into the ghostly influences of the divine work of God, there to be drenched[7] in the high flood, and oned to God by ravishing of love, by which she is all one spirit with her spouse.”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls

“Right so, ghostly to understand, it fareth by those souls that be come to peace. They have so long striven with vices and wrought by virtues, that they may come to the nut kernel, that is, to the love of God, which is sweetness. And when the soul hath deeply tasted this love, so that this love of God worketh and hath his usages[15]  in her soul, then the soul is wondrous light and gladsome, and that is no marvel, for the sweet taste of love driveth out from the soul all pains and bitterness and all doubts and dreads. Then is she mistress and lady over the virtues, for she hath them all within herself, ready at her commandment, without bitterness or painfulness of feeling to the soul. And then this soul taketh leave of virtues [in respect] of the thraldom and painful travail of them that she had before, and now she is lady and sovereign, and they be subjects. When the soul”
― Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls