1001Philosophers

Jacques Maritain Quotes on Knowledge

Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher and one of the architects of the twentieth-century revival of Thomism. This page collects quotes attributed to Jacques Maritain on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Jacques Maritain:

    “Distinguish in order to unite.”

  • Attributed to Jacques Maritain:

    “The philosopher is the friend of being.”

  • Attributed to Jacques Maritain:

    “The whole man must enter into philosophy, but only the intellect must do philosophy.”

  • “The Twilight of Civilization (1939). London: Sheed & Ward, 1946, p. 41.”

    If it is correct to say that there will always be rightist temperaments and leftist temperaments, it is nevertheless also correct to say that political philosophy is neither rightist nor leftist; it must simply be true .
  • “In each of us there dwells a mystery, and that mystery is the human personality.”

    The Rights of Man and Natural Law (1943), p. 2.
  • “The truth of practical intellect is understood not as conformity to an extramental being but as conformity to a right desire; the end is no longer to know what is, but to bring into existence that which is not yet.”

    Action: the Perfection of Human Life,” Sewanee Review , LVI (Winter, 1948), pp. 3-4.