Jakob böhme quotes

Love is greater than the Greatest. — Jakob Bohme

The heart in man signifieth the heat or the element of fire, and it is also the heat; for the heat in the whole body hath its original in the heart. — Jakob Bohme

God wills in man only that which is good, in the kingdom of his grace; where the free will yields itself up into the grace, there God wills that which is good in the will, through the grace.

— Jakob Bohme

Love is higher than the Highest. He came from a humble peasant background; his father, George Wissen Böhme, was a farmer. — Jakob Bohme

All that men will serve God with must be done in Faith, viz. — Jakob Bohme

A shepherd, in whom the spirit of God works, is more highly esteemed before God than the wisest and most potent in self-wit, without the divine dominion.

the water of eternal life, for an earnest-penny, so that instantly in our childhood we might be able to escape the wrath. — Jakob Bohme

Now air is the cause and spirit of every life and motion in the world, be it in flesh or in any of the vegetables; all whatever is hath its life from the air, and nothing whatsoever that moveth and is in this world can subsist without air.

But because the World, as the World, loveth all deceit and vanity, and walketh in false and treacherous ways, thence, if thou hast a mind to act a clean contrary part to the ways thereof, without any exception or reserve whatsoever, walk thou only in the right way, which is called [Pg 79] the Way of Light, as that of the World is properly the Way of Darkness.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“The virtue of Love is nothing and all, or that Nothing visible out of which All Things proceed.

— Jakob Bohme

We are children of the eternity: But this world is an out-birth out of the eternal; and its palpability taketh its original in the anger; the eternal nature is its root. Wherefore seek the Fountain of Light, waiting in the deep ground of thy soul for the rising there of the Sun of Righteousness, whereby the Light of Nature in thee, with the properties thereof, will be made to shine seven times brighter than ordinary.”

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Jakob Böhme, The Signature of All Things — Chapter VII(1650s)

“Eternity and Time; and how the Eternity dwells in the Time, but yet only in itself; but yet so nigh to the Time, as Fire and Light which are in one another, and yet make two Kingdoms; or as Darkness and Light dwell in each other, and the one is not the other.

He reported that in that moment he felt he could see into the deepest structures of nature and divinity. He complied for several years but eventually resumed his theological writings.

Major Works

• Aurora (1612) – his first book, dealing with divine wisdom and the origin of evil.

• The Three Principles of the Divine Essence (1619) – outlining his cosmology of God, nature, and humanity.

• The Way to Christ (1623) – a devotional work emphasizing personal spiritual renewal.

• The Signature of All Things (1621) – explaining how divine realities are mirrored in nature.

• Forty Questions Concerning the Soul – one of his most influential works on anthropology and spirituality.

Key Ideas

• Duality of Good and Evil: Böhme taught that creation is a struggle between light and darkness, love and wrath, freedom and necessity.

• Mystical Knowledge: He believed true wisdom comes not from book learning but from divine illumination.

• God’s Self-Revelation: God, for Böhme, was an unfathomable unity who reveals Himself through contrast and tension.

• Nature as Symbol: All natural phenomena reflected spiritual truths and could be read as divine “signatures.”

Later Life and Death

Despite ongoing opposition from the church authorities, Böhme continued to write, producing a vast body of mystical theology.

— Jakob Bohme

Time past, present, and to come, as also depth and height, near and afar off, are all one in God, one comprehensibility.

Jakob Bohme

Jakob Böhme – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Explore the mystical life, theology, and enduring influence of Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), the German Christian mystic whose writings shaped philosophy, spirituality, and literature.

Introduction

Jakob Böhme (also spelled Jacob Boehme) was a German Christian mystic, theologian, and philosopher whose visionary works profoundly influenced both religious thought and European philosophy.

— Jakob Bohme

The soul shall mightily rule in all hidden secrets: but it must not let in the devil. — Jakob Bohme

A Christian is of no sect. Love, that is, Divine Love (of which only we are now discoursing) , hates all Egoity, hates all that which we call I, or IHOOD, hates all such restrictions and confinements, even all that springs from a contracted spirit, or this evil Self-hood, because it is an hateful and deadly thing.

And it is impossible that these [Pg 40] two should stand together, or subsist in one person; the one driving out the other by a necessity of nature. He hath but one knowledge, and that is, Christ in him.