The 70 best quotes by Anselm of Canterbury

These are the best famous quotes from one of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages.

Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - 1109), also known as Anselm of Aosta, was a famous Benedictine monk who served as Archbishop of Canterbury.

He stood out as one of the most brilliant theologians and philosophers of scholasticism.

Famous quotes and phrases of Anselm of Canterbury.

In today's article we are going to know more in depth the ideas and thoughts of this monk through the most famous quotes of Anselm of Canterbury.

1. I do not seek, indeed, to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this, because if I did not believe, I would not understand.

The basis of his thought was based on a belief.

2. In re-examining the work often, I have not been able to find anything I have said in it that does not agree with the writings of the Catholic Fathers and especially with those of blessed Augustine.

A veneration of his intellectual references within the Church.

3. Even if I do not want to believe in you, I cannot but understand that you exist.

A phrase of Anselm of Canterbury that invites us to reflect.

4. Come on, little man! Flee for a while from your tasks, hide for a little space from the agitation of your thoughts.

A channel to be yourself again.

5. Come, put aside your painful cares and put aside your labors.

In the line of the previous famous quotation.

6. For a moment, dedicate your time to God and rest a moment in Him.

Mystical reflection cures all ills, according to St. Anselm of Canterbury.

7. Enter the inner chamber of your mind, close all things except God and everything that can help you to seek God; and having locked the door of your chamber, seek Him.

Only when we are alone can we come in contact with God.

8. Speak now, O my heart, O my whole heart, speak now and say to thy God: My face sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I seek.

An ode to the Supreme Being.

9. Teach me to seek Thee and reveal Thee when I seek Thee, for I cannot seek Thee except Thou teach me, nor find Thee, unless Thou reveal Thyself.

One alone is able to find one's way.

10. Let me seek thee in longing, let me long in seeking thee; let me find thee in love and love thee in finding.

A great poetic phrase of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

11. Lord, I thank you and I thank you that you have created me in this your image, so that I may be aware of you, conceive you and love you.

An explicit thank you to God.

12. But that image has been consumed by vices, and obscured by the smoke of evil that it cannot accomplish that for which it was created, except You renew it and create it anew.

On the atonement necessary every Sunday.

13. I strive not, O Lord, to penetrate Thy heights, for I by no means compare my understanding with Thine; but I long to understand in some degree Thy truth which my Heart believes and loves.

An ode to the knowledge and figure of God.

14. I long, O God, to know Thee, to love Thee, that I may rejoice in Thee.

Another praise to the figure of Almighty God.

15. And if I cannot attain to full joy in this life, I can at least advance from day to day until that joy comes to me in full.

On the final redemption, in a mythical phrase of St. Anselm of Canterbury.

16. Where the true heavenly joys are, there the desires of our heart must always be.

Nothing mundane should make us lose our heads.

17. Grant, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that I may feel with my heart what I touch with my intelligence.

The link between emotions and reason, summarized in this phrase of Anselm of Canterbury.

18. God was conceived as a very pure Virgin... it was fitting that the virgin should be radiant with such great purity that no greater purity can be conceived.

On the purity of the son of God, Jesus Christ.

19. God often works more for the life of the illiterate who seek the things that are God's, than for the ability of the learned who seek the things that are His.

The goodness of God, according to Anselmo, knows no limits.

20. Take away grace, and you have nothing by which to be saved. Take away free will, and you have nothing to be saved by.

Reflection in a metaphysical tone.

21. For vengeance belongs to none but to Him who is Lord of all; for when the powers of the world achieved this end, God Himself did so in order to design it.

The only owner of the power of vengeance is God.

22. Therefore, O Lord, it is not only you who cannot be thought greater, but you are also something greater than can be thought.

Inconceivably immense.

23. In you I move, and in you I have my being; and I cannot go to you. Thou art within me and of me, and I do not feel thee.

On the omnipresence of the Supreme Being.

24. God is not slow to hear our prayers because he is not in the mood to give; but that, by increasing our desires, he can give us more amply.

A beautiful reflection on divine compassion.

25. God is that, the greatest of what cannot be conceived.

Unimaginable and exaggeratedly kind.

26. Do not let worldly prosperity divert you, nor let any worldly adversity hinder you from his praise.

A reflection to apply to our daily life.

27. A single mass offered by oneself during life can be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.

On his work and the importance of being a perfectionist.

28. And if I cannot do it completely in this life, let me continue until the day when I reach that fullness.

After death, one supposes.

29. Let me receive what you promised through your truth, so that my joy may be full.

A supplication to God.

30. O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far art thou from me, who art so near to thee; how far art thou from my vision, though I am so near to thee! Everywhere thou art fully present, and I do not see thee.

Another phrase in relation to the majesty of God.

31. Idleness is the enemy of the soul.

The more fun the less purity, according to Anselm of Canterbury.

32. God has promised forgiveness to him who repents, but has not promised repentance to him who sins.

Such is the moral code of the Supreme Being.

33. Deliver me by your mercy, do not punish me by your justice.

A supplication to God, in reference to His goodness.

34. Disasters teach us humility.

When we lose everything we have the opportunity to feel like mere mortals again.

35. It is impossible to save the soul without devotion to Mary and without her protection.

About the Virgin.

36. There is no inconsistency in that God commands us not to take upon us what belongs to Him alone.

What belongs to God is His and nothing else.

37. For that from which something is made is a cause of that which is made of it; and, necessarily, every cause contributes something helpful to the existence of the effect.

A philosophical phrase.

38. Lust does not desire procreation, but pleasure only.

On the sexual act and its ultimate motive.

39. I have written the following little work... in the role of one who strives to elevate his mind to the contemplation of God and one who seeks to understand what he believes.

Another sentence about the virtues of believing people.

40. Therefore, Lord God, you are more truly omnipotent, because you have no power through impotence and nothing can be against you.

A reflection on the omnipotence of the Supreme Being.

41. Therefore, it is not proper for God to pass over sin without punishment.

All conduct must have its divine punishment if it is not morally acceptable.

42. For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.

Faith entails knowledge.

43. This pamphlet wishes to set forth in usual language what there is about the divine essence and other points akin to this meditation.

Food for thought.

44. Eminent Nature is the first and only cause. She alone produced everything by herself and from nothing.

The way God speaks: through the natural medium.

45. To know oneself will then be to ascend to the knowledge of the eminent essence.

On self-discovery and the divine.

46. Know that there is always a likeness-similarity.

Incoherencies, in the eyes of God.

47. How does the finite relate to the infinite, the One to the multiple?

A philosophical question in the air, of great interest.

48. It is evident that eminent Nature gives life, gives vigor. She creates and keeps preserves by her presence. This means that she is everywhere: through things and within them.

The vitality of Nature is practically incomparable.

49. To express God we have to take all possible attributes and the best and at the best level.

In superlative degree, always.

50. The artist "says" the things he thinks of himself before executing them. In the same way God has a speech.

A metaphor for understanding the function of thought.

51. The Word is the image and likeness of the thing in the mind.

Do you know what is the difference between signified and signifier?

52. The eminent Essence is defined because it lives, feels and reasons. Then every nature will come nearer to it in that it lives, feels, and reasons because every good is similar to the highest good.

Everything is made to the measure of the divine essence.

53. God is reality: it is important to understand this even when we know that this science surpasses our intelligence.

A disquisition on what exists.

54. Our language is weak, even inefficient: God is greater than all that can be thought.

Another lucubration about the limitations of human thought.

55. God has created us in his image: let us seek this image and we will see God.

Only if we find it will we be close to his essence.

56. The more the reasonable spirit tries to know himself with the utmost care, the more effectively he will know the eminent Essence.

Along the lines of the preceding sentence.

57. The most admirable thing he has received is the imprinted image of the Creator: he can remember, understand, and love. Memory is the image of the Father, intelligence the image of the Son, and love the image of the Holy Spirit.

One of those religious phrases of deep depth.

58. To tend means to believe.

Reflecting on faith.

59. Certainly this is not only God (noetic level), but the one ineffably triune and one God.

The characteristics of the Christian God, according to Anselmo.

60. Faith makes us reach God in his reality, in his real essence: we know that he is the only one who really is. that we cannot understand Him, we can only understand rationally that He is incomprehensible; that we tend towards Him in order to reach Him and enjoy His presence.

On the importance of having faith.

61. Analogy is important if we do not forget to start from the real thing and not from our language.

A trap of language can be to rely too much on metaphors and similes.

62. The human mind must rationally comprehend what is incomprehensible.

Not imaginable does not mean not knowable.

63. We can understand with the saints what is the breadth and length, the height and depth, to know also the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

To reflect on the love of Christ.

64. Creation was nothing and at the same time it was something.

Interesting thought of Anselm of Canterbury.

65. To believe means to be in contact with something or to have experience of something, and this experience is indispensable to know.

Apprehension that results in divine knowledge.

66. This does not lead to the recognition that God is not simple, but composite. He is composite in terms of his attributes, but at the same time he is simple insofar as each attribute is in the others.

God and his defining characteristics.

67. The other natures are not, they receive being from God and therefore must glorify him.

Every natural being emanates from the wisdom of God.

68. God alone is real because he is the only one who is in a simple, perfect and absolute way; the other natures -human nature too- are not real because they are not in a simple, perfect and absolute way, they are barely.

On the concept of reality.

69. Man by accepting that "he can know nothing or almost nothing" unites the two levels, noetic and ontic, the level of thought and the level of reality.

A metaphysical reflection to be taken into account.

70. God is my defense.

He never fails.