Long ago Quote by Leonard Cohen
““What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His course is a caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock. Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance. Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: Leonard Cohen, “The Energy of Love” discussion, 2005
A saint is someone who attains a rare, love‑driven balance within life's chaos, not by controlling it but by moving harmoniously with it.
In simple terms: A saint finds love‑based balance in chaos.
Cultivate love‑driven balance amid disorder.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- personal growth
- spiritual practice
- creative work
- leadership
- stress management
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you embody love‑driven balance in daily challenges?
- What does “balance in chaos” look like for you?
The concept of a saint may be idealized, making practical application vague.