Frithjof Schuon Archive

Savonarola, preacher and ascetic,Was right to castigate worldly art,But not right to oppose good painting;Art and asceticism are different worlds.One can criticize many artists, but not thoseWho through Spirit and Beauty,ennoble their art.

Petrarch, it seems, loved his art more Than his beloved, for with his poetryHe wished to build a lasting monument to love.More than the to-and-fro of the censers,The saint Tiruválluvar loved to look longinglyAt the temple from afar, which As a pariah he did not have...

The Name is Truth, and Presence of God;It brings certitude, and trust in God;Serenity — its echo is resignation;There is no other way to look on God or the world.

Serenitas — soaring above the clouds;The world is full of hither and thither — and soIs the human soul. The world and the soul are smallCompared with the sky. If thou wouldst live like an eagle,Never forget pure and luminous Being.