Jakob böhme quotes

Raised in modest circumstances, Jakob received only a basic village education. For only in itself it worketh and is revealed, being one and undivided in all. Paradise is yet in the World, but Man is not therein, unless he be born again of God; then as to that new Regeneration he is therein, and not with the Adam of the four Elements.”

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

“God must become Man, Man must become God; Heaven must become one Thing with the Earth, the Earth must be turned to Heaven: If you will make Heaven out of the Earth, then give the Earth the Heaven's Food, that the Earth may obtain the Will of Heaven, that the Will of the wrathful Mercury may give itself in unto the Will of the heavenly Mercury.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“Heaven is throughout the whole World, and it is also without the World over all, even everywhere that is, or that can be even so much as imagined.

Its power is through All Things; its height is as high as God; its greatness is as great as God. — Jakob Bohme

The city Babel is the Ham-like man, who builds this city upon the earth; the tower is his self-chosen god, and divine worship. It is the work of visible religion to teach by signs and parables, embodying the mystery in symbols, and clothing it with adoration.”

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

“The Sunshine is neither hot nor cold; only Mercury in the Spirit of the great World makes in Mars and Saturn's Property a Heat therein; for the Sun enkindles their Desire, upon which they grow so very hungry, eager, desirous, and operative, that even a Fire is found to be in the Light, which Heat is not of the Light's own Property, but of the Soul of the great World, which does so sharpen the pleasant Light in its Splendor, that it is unsufferable to the Eye.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“Body of Christ, whence they have all the same heavenly goods in common and all live in one and the same Love of God, as the branches of a tree in one and the same root, and spring all from one and the same source of life in them.

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.

— Jakob Bohme

God's love-eye does not see essentially into the wicked rebellious apostate soul; neither also into the devil, but his anger-eye sees thereinto; that is, God, according to the property of the anger or fire of wrath, sees in the devil, and in the false soul. — Jakob Bohme

When thou standest still from thinking and willing of self, the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking will be revealed to thee, and so God heareth and seeth through thee.

— Jakob Bohme

There is nothing in nature wherein there is not good and evil; everything moveth and liveth in this double impulse, working or operation, be it what it will. — Jakob Bohme

The pure Deity is in all places and all corners, and present every where all over: the birth of the holy Trinity in one essence is every where: and the angelical world reacheth to every part, wherever you can think, even in the midst of the earth, stones, and rocks: as also hell and the kingdom of God's wrath is every where all over.

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. — 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.

Adam fell when his play became serious business . Nevertheless in this very anxiety of soul arising from the world or the flesh, the Love doth most willingly enkindle itself, and its cheering and conquering fire is but made to blaze forth with greater strength for the destruction of that evil.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“He hath but one knowledge, and that is, Christ in him.

The liver is the mother of the blood. He seeketh but one way, which [Pg 2] is the desire always to do and teach that which is right; and he putteth all his knowing and willing into the Life of Christ. Known as the “Teutonic Theosopher,” he sought to explain the nature of God, creation, good and evil, and the human soul through symbolic and mystical insights.

— Jakob Bohme

In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all, and in and by all creatures, even in herbs and grass it knew God, who he is, and how he is, and what his will is: And suddenly in that light my will was set on by a mighty impulse, to describe the being of God. — Jakob Bohme

When in such sadness I earnestly elevated my spirit into God and locked my whole heart and mind along with all my thoughts and will therein, ceaselessly pressing in with God's Love and Mercy, and not to cease until he blessed me?

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

As the science of every thing is in the formed Word, so also is God's will therein: That same expressed Word is in the angels, angelical; in the devils, diabolical; in man, human; in beasts, bestial. So that he can have no want of spiritual friends and relations, who are all rooted with him together in the Love which is from above, who are all of the same blood and kindred in Christ Jesus; and who are cherished all by the same quickening sap and spirit diffusing itself through them universally from the one true Vine, which is the tree of life and love.”

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

“It finds nothing except only the Property of the Hunger, which is itself, which it draws into itself, that is, draws itself into itself, and finds itself in itself; and its Attraction into itself makes an Overshadowing or Darkness in it, which is not in the Liberty, 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.

It appeareth only through the Manifestation of God”

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

“For if my Will is a Nothing, then he is in me what he pleases, and then I know not myself any more, but him; and if he will that I shall be something, then let him effect it; but if he wills it not, then I am dead in him, and he lives in me as he pleases, and so then if I be a Nothing, then I am at the End, in the Essence out of which my Father Adam was created; for out of Nothing God has created all Things.”

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Jakob Böhme, Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

“All is confusion if thou hast no more than the dim Light of Nature, or unsanctified and unregenerated Reason to guide thee by, and if only the Eye of Time be opened in thee, which cannot pierce beyond its own limit.

— Jakob Bohme

All strife concerning Christ's testaments cometh hence that men do not understand that Heaven wherein Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. They understand not that he is in this World, and that the World standeth in Heaven, and Heaven in the World, and are in one another, as Day and Night.