“If pure philosophy took any of its ideas from Christian revelation, if anything in the Bible and the Gospel has passed into metaphysics, if, in short, it is inconceivable that the system of Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz would be what… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“The God of St. Thomas and Dante is a God Who loves, the god of Aristotle is a god who does not refuse to be loved; the love that moves the heavens and the stars in Aristotle is the love… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought. — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“Modern man, brought up on Kantian idealism, regards nature as being no more than an outcome of the laws of the mind. Losing all… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“The Middle Ages were long preoccupied with the nature of the concept, or of the notion which the intellect abstracts from the object; but… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
Humans feel at home in a world of things, whose essences and laws it can grasp and define in terms of concepts; but shy… — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
Radiance belongs to being considered precisely as beautiful: it is, in being, that which catches the eye, or the ear, or the mind, and… — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“When man subverted order he did a great deal more than merely fall away from the rationality of his nature, diminish his own humanity,… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“Just as it is by His goodness that God gives being to beings, so also it is by His goodness that He makes causes… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
To minds tormented by the divine thirst, it is useless to offer the most certain knowledge of the laws of numbers and the arrangement… — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“As long as one makes some kind of conscious state, whether a “passive sensation” or an “apprehended”, come before reality, one will remain more… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
Man is not a mind that thinks, but a being who knows other beings as true, who loves them as good and who enjoys… — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
If our previous analyses are correct, they all point to the same conclusion, that metaphysical adventures are doomed to fail when their authors substitute… — Etienne Gilson Copy Share Image
“But if one decides to start with Descartes and finish with Aristotle, and to employ an idealist method while shamelessly making use of a… — Étienne Gilson Copy Share Image
