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Thomas Aquinas Quotes about Science

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It is not possible to be ignorant of the end of things if we know their beginning.

It is not possible to be ignorant of the end of things if we know their beginning.

Thomas Aquinas
Science, Ignorant, Ends
Thomas Aquinas (1997). “Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas: Volume One”, p.952, Hackett Publishing

Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.

Thomas Aquinas
Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.

Thomas Aquinas
Philosophy, Knowledge, Science

For it is necessary in every practical science to proceed in a composite (i.e. deductive) manner. On the contrary in speculative science, it is necessary to proceed in an analytical manner by breaking down the complex into elementary principles.

Thomas Aquinas
Science, Scientific Method, Principles
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1993). “Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics”, St. Augustine's Press

Practical sciences proceed by building up; theoretical science by resolving into components.

Thomas Aquinas
Science, Building Up, Statistics
Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1960). “St. Thomas Aquinas: Philosophical Texts”

It must be understood that prime matter, and form as well, is neither generated nor corrupted, because every generation is from something to something. Now that from which generation proceeds is matter, and that to which it proceeds is form. So that, if matter or form were generated, there would be a matter for matter and a form for form, endlessly. Whence, there is generation only of the composite, properly speaking.

Thomas Aquinas
Science, Would Be, Generations
Joseph Bobik, Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1998). “Aquinas on matter and form and the elements: a translation and interpretation of the De principiis naturae and the De mixtione elementorum of St. Thomas Aquinas”, Univ of Notre Dame Pr

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