“The three greatest metaphysicians who ever existed - Plato, Aristotle and St.Thomas Aquinas - had no system in the idealistic sense of the word. Their ambition was not to achieve philosophy once and for all, but to maintain it and… — 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
