Clement of Alexandria Quotes on Knowledge
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215), the Christian Platonist head of the Catechetical School, defended in the Stromateis (Miscellanies) and the Paedagogus the most ambitious early-patristic synthesis of biblical revelation with the Greek philosophical tradition. The doctrine of the true gnōsis — knowledge perfected by the moral and contemplative discipline of the Christian life — treats philosophy as a divine preparation for the Logos analogous to the Mosaic law for the Jews, and the corresponding programme of biblical interpretation reads scripture through the categories of Stoic, Platonist, and Aristotelian thought.
Quotes
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“Philosophy is a clear image of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks.”
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“Knowledge is the perfection of the soul.”
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“The truly wise man is also a philosopher in deed.”
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“If I know God, I know myself.”
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“Paedagogus ( The Instructor , c. 198 AD), 2.”
Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own hu -
“He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience.”
Paedagogus ( The Instructor , c. 198 AD), Book I, Ch. 8 -
“Paedagogus ( The Instructor , c. 198 AD), Book I, Ch. 8”
He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience. -
“Paedagogus ( The Instructor , c. 198 AD), Book II, Ch. 13”
It is monstrous for one to live in luxury while many are in want. -
“Stromata ( Miscellanies , c. 198–203 AD), I: 5.”
There is one river of truth, which receives tributaries from every side.