Thomas Aquinas Quotes on Knowledge
Aquinas's epistemology, developed across the Summa Theologica and the disputed questions, integrates Aristotelian abstraction with the Christian doctrine of the soul. Human intellect possesses no innate ideas: it begins as a tabula rasa, receives sense-impressions through the bodily senses, and abstracts intelligible species from the phantasms supplied by imagination through the action of the agent intellect. The natural light of reason can therefore know God and the soul only through the effects of the visible world; the truths of faith — the Trinity, the Incarnation, the resurrection of the body — exceed the reach of natural reason and require revelation, but they do not contradict it, since the same divine source authors both nature and grace.
Quotes
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“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”
Tria sunt homini necessaria ad salutem: scilicit scientia credendorum, scientia desiderandorum, et scientia operandorum. -
Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
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Attributed to Thomas Aquinas:
“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”
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“Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi, Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium.”
Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, Of His Flesh the mystery sing; Of the Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our immortal King. | Pange, Lingua (hymn for Vespers on the Feast of Corpus Christi), stanza 1 -
“Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, Of His Flesh the mystery sing; Of the Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our immortal King.”
Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi, Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium. -
“Pange, Lingua (hymn for Vespers on the Feast of Corpus Christi), stanza 1”
Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi, Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium. -
“Pange, Lingua , stanza 5 ( Tantum Ergo )”
Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail. -
“Sacris Solemniis Juncta Sint Gaudia (Matins hymn for Corpus Christi), stanza 6 ( Panis Angelicus )”
Thus Angels' Bread is made The Bread of man today: The Living Bread from Heaven With figures doth away : O wondrous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may Upon their Lord and Master feed. -
“Verbum Supernum Prodiens (hymn for Lauds on Corpus Christi), stanza 5 ( O Salutaris Hostia )”
O saving Victim, opening wide The gate of heaven to man below, Our foes press on from every side, Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.