Thomas Aquinas 1225 – 1274
Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Italian Dominican friar and philosopher, the most influential figure of medieval scholasticism. His Summa Theologica, left unfinished at his death, is the most ambitious systematic synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology in the Western tradition. He developed five proofs for the existence of God, an integrated account of natural law and ethics, and detailed treatments of human action, virtue, and the sacraments. Aquinas was canonized in 1323 and named a Doctor of the Church; his thought was declared the standard Catholic philosophical and theological framework by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. The school of thought based on his work, Thomism, remains an active philosophical tradition.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Italian
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Medieval, Scholasticism, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.”
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions.”
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.”