Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153): Grief for sins is necessary, but it should not stay there

“Grief for sins is necessary, but must not be perpetual. My advice is to turn back at times from sorrow and the anxious remembrance of your ways, and escape to the plain, to a calm review of the divine mercies. Let us mingle honey with wormwood, that the salubrious bitter may give health when we drink it tempered with a mixture of sweetness: while you think humbly of yourselves, think also of the goodness of the Lord.”

– Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Sermones super Cantica Canticorum (Sermons on the Song of Songs), Sermon 11