Robert Grosseteste Quotes
Robert Grosseteste was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, and bishop of Lincoln. He served as the first chancellor of the University of Oxford and as the leading translator into Latin of the Greek philosophical and patristic heritage of his time. The quotes below are attributed to Robert Grosseteste, organized by topic.
Browse Robert Grosseteste by topic
Robert Grosseteste on Death
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“De Lineas, Anguilis et Figuris ( On Lines, Angles and Figures ) as quoted in Neil Lewis, "Robert Grosseteste" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007, 2013) citing Baur, Ludwig (ed.) Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln (1912) pp.59–60”
The consideration of lines, angles and figures is of the greatest utility since it is impossible for natural philosophy to be known without them... All causes of natural effects have to be given through lines, angles and figures, for otherwise it is impossible for the reason why ( propter quid ) to be known in them. -
“De Lineas, Anguilis et Figuris as quoted by A.C. Crombie , Robert Groseesteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100-1700 (1953) citing Baur, Ludwig (ed.) Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln (1912)”
Power from natural agents may go by a short line, and then in its activity greater ... But if by a straight line then its action is stronger and better, as Aristotle says in Book V of the Physics, because nature operates in the shortest way possible. But the straight line is the shortest of all, as he says in the same place.
Robert Grosseteste on God
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Attributed to Robert Grosseteste:
“True knowledge is found in the union of revelation and reason.”
Robert Grosseteste on Justice
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Attributed to Robert Grosseteste:
“It is not lawful for the Christian to obey unjust laws.”
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“Just as the light of the sun irradiates the organ of vision and things visible, enabling the former to see and the latter to be seen, so too the irradiation of a spiritual light brings the mind into relation with that which is intelligible.”
Commentary on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics , i.17 as quoted by Francis Seymour Stevenson , Robert Grosseteste: Bishop of Lincoln , p. 52 (footnote 2)
Robert Grosseteste on Knowledge
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Attributed to Robert Grosseteste:
“Mathematics is the key to natural philosophy.”
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“Commentary on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics , i.17 as quoted by Francis Seymour Stevenson , Robert Grosseteste: Bishop of Lincoln , p. 52 (footnote 2)”
Just as the light of the sun irradiates the organ of vision and things visible, enabling the former to see and the latter to be seen, so too the irradiation of a spiritual light brings the mind into relation with that which is intelligible. -
“This part of optics , when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want , so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort of minute objects.”
De iride (On the rainbow) Note this prediction of optical scientific instruments like the telescope and microscope, not to be utilized until 250 years later. -
“De iride (On the rainbow) Note this prediction of optical scientific instruments like the telescope and microscope, not to be utilized until 250 years later.”
This part of optics , when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want , so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort of minute objects.
Robert Grosseteste on Mind
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“The consideration of lines, angles and figures is of the greatest utility since it is impossible for natural philosophy to be known without them... All causes of natural effects have to be given through lines, angles and figures, for otherwise it is impossible for the reason why ( propter quid ) to be known in them.”
De Lineas, Anguilis et Figuris ( On Lines, Angles and Figures ) as quoted in Neil Lewis, "Robert Grosseteste" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007, 2013) citing Baur, Ludwig (ed.) Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln (1912) pp.59–60
Robert Grosseteste on Nature
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Attributed to Robert Grosseteste:
“Light is the first form of all things.”
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Attributed to Robert Grosseteste:
“All natural things proceed from light.”
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“Power from natural agents may go by a short line, and then in its activity greater ... But if by a straight line then its action is stronger and better, as Aristotle says in Book V of the Physics, because nature operates in the shortest way possible. But the straight line is the shortest of all, as he says in the same place.”
De Lineas, Anguilis et Figuris as quoted by A.C. Crombie , Robert Groseesteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100-1700 (1953) citing Baur, Ludwig (ed.) Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln (1912) -
“Every operation in nature is in the shortest, best ordered, briefest, and best possible way.”
De iride published in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters , IX (1912) pp.74-75 as quoted in Carl B. Boyer , The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959) -
“The diligent investigator of natural phenomena can give the causes of all natural effects... by the rules and roots and foundations given from the power of geometry .”
On the Nature of Places , a continuation of the treatise On Lines, Angles and Figures as quoted by Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, "Translation and discussion of the De Iride , a treatise on optics by Robert Grosseteste" arXiv:1211.5961v1 @arXi -
“In a vacuum which is imagined as infinite there cannot be local differences, both on account of its infinity, and also because of the fact that the vacuum, if it exists, would have no nature but a privation, and therefore it can have no natural differences.”
Commentarius in VIII Libros Physicorum Aristoteles(c. 1230-1235)