Jakob böhme quotes

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

In this light, my spirit saw through all things and into all creatures and I recognized God in grass and plants. — Jakob Bohme

He that serves God is resigned up into him, and in all things has respect to truth and righteousness, and will promote that. Though poorly educated in the academic sense, his writings reveal a profound originality and daring imagination.

— 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. 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.

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

Jakob Böhme

Quotes by Jakob Böhme

Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“God is outside of Nature and yet in a sense inside also, because there is a divine life or virtue in Nature which, longing to re-unite itself with its source, is a cause of anguish while divided, and of joy when united.

Or, in one word, if Love had not something which it might love, and manifest the virtue and power of love in working out deliverance to the Beloved from all pain and trouble.”

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Source: Gutenberg

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.

Raised in modest circumstances, Jakob received only a basic village education. All reason-taught, from the school of this world, are the master-builders of this tower. For Love possesses Heaven, and dwells in itself, which is dwelling in Heaven”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“This do and nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at friendship with all the things that are, as thou dependest upon the author and fountain of them, and becomest like him, by such dependence, and by the Union of thy Will with his Will.

into its own Lubet, the same receives, in passing through the Degrees, the Abominate; for each Form of Nature out of the Mystery receives of its Property in its Hunger, and therein it is not annoyed or molested, for it is of their Property.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest unto that out of which the World is made, and if thou losest thy life, then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it.

— Jakob Bohme

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

in the Spirit. — Jakob Bohme

What kind of spiritual triumph it was I can neither write nor speak; it can only be compared with that where life is born in the midst of death, and is like the resurrection of the dead. As it was before the Times of this World in his eternal Harmony [or Voice] , so also it continues in the creaturely Voice in him in his Eternity; and this is the Beginning and the End of all Things.”

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

“All Things are generated out of the grand Mystery, and proceed out of one Degree into another: Now whatever goes forwards in its Degree, the same receives no Abominate, let it be either in Vegetables or Animals; but whatever enters in itself into its Self-hood, viz.

The one is fire, and the other is light.”

“Do not be your own witness, let God be your witness.”

“He who seeks will find; he who knocks, to him it will be opened.”

“The greatest honor of man is to know himself truly.”

These sayings reflect his mystical dualism, his ethic of love, and his insistence on divine mystery within human existence.

Lessons from Jakob Böhme’s Life

• Mystical experience transcends formal education: Profound spiritual insight does not require elite training.

• Visionary courage: Despite persecution, he pursued his revelations with integrity.

• Unity of opposites: His teaching that light and darkness coexist speaks to the complexities of human life.

• Nature as divine text: His notion of a “signature of all things” encourages us to see the sacred in creation.

• Humility before mystery: He reminds us that theology is less about mastery and more about reverence for the unfathomable.

Conclusion

Jakob Böhme stands as a luminous figure in the history of mysticism—an unlettered shoemaker whose visions reshaped theology, philosophy, and poetry.

He sigheth and wisheth continually that the Will of God might be done in him, and that his Kingdom might be manifested in him. Love is greater than the Greatest.