The Treasure of the Humble
1896
The Treasure of the Humble, published in 1896 by Belgian Nobel Laureate Maurice Maeterlinck, is a collection of thirteen philosophical essays exploring themes of mysticism, silence, and the inner life of the soul. The essays, including titles like The Awakening of the Soul and Mystic Morality, delve into the unseen intricacies of existence and the profound simplicity of the human experience. Maeterlinck emphasizes the importance of silence for genuine understanding and connection, inviting readers to reflect on the hidden beauty of life. This work serves as both a philosophical exploration and a complement to his theatrical endeavors.
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“As soon as we put something into words, we devalue it in a strange way. We think we have plunged into the depths of the abyss, and when we return to the surface the drop of water on our pale fingertips no longer resembles the sea from which it comes. We delude ourselves that we have discovered a wonderful treasure trove, and when we return to the light of day we find that we have brought back only false stones and shards of glass; and yet the treasure goes on glimmering in the dark, unaltered.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“We all live in the sublime. Where else can we live? That is the only place of life.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“To learn to love, one must first learn to see.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“Bees will not work except in darkness;Thought will not work except in Silence;neither will Virtue Work except in secrecy.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together ... Speech is too often ... the act of quite stifling and suspending thought, so that there is none to conceal ... Speech is of Time, silence is of Eternity ... It is idle to think that, by means of words, any real communication can ever pass from one man to another ...””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“Thousands of channels there are through which the beauty of your soul may sail even unto our thoughts. Above all is there the wonderful, central channel of love.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“A thought that is almost beautiful – a thought that you speak not, but that you cherish within you at this moment, will irradiate you as though you were a transparent vase.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“Must we always be warned, and can we only fall on our knees when some one is there to tell us that God is passing by? If you have loved profoundly you have needed no one to tell you that your soul was a thing as great in itself as the world; that the stars, the flowers, the waves of night and sea were not solitary; that it was on the threshold of appearances that everything began, but nothing ended, and that the very lips you kissed belonged to a creature who was loftier, much purer, and much more beautiful than the one whom your arms enfolded.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
“Be good at the depth of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will be good even to the same depths. Nothing responds more infallibly to the secret cry of goodness than the secret cry of goodness that is near. While you are actively good in the invisible, all those who approach you will unconsciously do things that they could not do by the side of any other man.””
— Maurice Maeterlinck
