The 70 best quotes from Anselm of Canterbury

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.

• Related article: "The 40 best religious phrases in history"

Famous quotes and phrases from 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 phrases of Anselm of Canterbury.

• It may interest you: "The 74 best phrases of Saint Francis of Assisi"

1. Indeed, I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. Well, I believe this, because if I didn't believe, I wouldn't understand.

The basis of his thought was based on a belief.

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

A veneration for their intellectual referents within the Church.

3. Even if I don't want to believe in you, I can't help but understand that you exist.

Phrase from Anselmo de Canterbury that invites us to reflect.

4. Come on, little man! Run away from your tasks for a while, hide for a little space from the turmoil of your thoughts.

A channel to be yourself again.

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

Along the lines of the previous famous quote.

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

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

7. Go into the inner chamber of your mind, shut out all things except God and everything that can help you to seek God; and having barred the door of your chamber, look for him.

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

8. Speak now, oh my heart, oh my whole heart, speak now and say to your God: My face sought you: Your face, oh Lord, I will seek.

An ode to the Supreme Being.

9. Teach me to seek you and reveal you when I seek you, because I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you reveal yourself.

Only oneself is capable of finding its way.

10. Let me look for you in longing, let me long to look for you; let me find you in love and love you in finding.

A great poetic phrase from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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

An explicit thank you to God.

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

On the expiation necessary every Sunday.

13. I do not strive, Lord, to penetrate Your heights, because in no way do I compare my understanding with Yours; but I long to understand in some degree Your truth that my heart believes and loves.

An ode to knowledge and the figure of God.

14. I long, O God, to know You, to love You, so that I can rejoice in You.

Another praise to the figure of Almighty God.

15. And if I can't achieve total joy in this life, at least I can advance from day to day until that joy comes to me completely.

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

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

Nothing mundane should make us lose our minds.

17. Do, I beg you, Lord, that I feel with my heart what I touch with my intelligence.

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

18. God was conceived as a very pure Virgin... it was fitting that the virgin should be radiant with a purity so great that a greater purity cannot be conceived.

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

19. God often works more for the lives of the illiterate who seek the things that are of God, than for the ability of the scholars who seek the things that are theirs.

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

20. He takes away grace, and you have nothing to be saved by. He removes free will and you have nothing to save.

Reflection in metaphysical tone.

21. For vengeance belongs to no one but to Him Who is Lord of all; for when the powers of the world achieved this end, God himself did it to design it.

The only owner of the ability to take revenge is God.

22. Therefore, Lord, not only are you the one that cannot be thought of a greater, but you are also something greater than can be thought.

Inconceivably huge.

23. In you I move, and in you I have my being; And I can't go to you You are inside of me and of me, and I don't feel you.

On the omnipresence of the Supreme Being.

24. God does not take long to hear our prayers because he does not have the courage to give; but that, by increasing our desires, can give us more widely.

A beautiful reflection on divine compassion.

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

Unimaginably and exaggeratedly kind.

26. Do not let worldly prosperity lead you astray, nor any worldly adversity hinder your praise.

A reflection to apply to our day to day.

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

About his work and the importance of being a perfectionist.

28. And if I can't fully do it in this lifetime, let me continue until the day I do.

After death, presumably.

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

A plea to God.

30. O supreme and inaccessible light! Oh, complete and blessed truth, how far you are from me, that I am so close to you! How far you are from my vision, though I am so close to you! Everywhere you are fully present, and I don't see you.

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 the one who repents, but he has not promised repentance to the one who sins.

Such is the moral code of the Supreme Being.

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

A plea 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 God commanding us not to take upon ourselves what belongs to him alone.

What is of God is His and nothing else.

37. For that of which something is made is a cause of what is made of it; and, necessarily, each cause contributes some help to the existence of the effect.

Phrase of philosophical cut.

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

On the sexual act and its ultimate motive.

39. I have written the little work that follows... in the role of someone who strives to raise his mind to the contemplation of God and someone who seeks to understand what he believes.

Another sentence on the virtues of believers.

40. Therefore, Lord God, you are most truly omnipotent, because you are powerless through powerlessness and nothing can be against you.

A reflection on the omnipotence of the Supreme Being.

41. Therefore, it is not appropriate for God to overlook sin without punishment.

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

42. Because I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. Because I believe this: unless I believe, I won't understand.

Faith brings knowledge.

43. This booklet wants to expose in usual language what there is about the divine essence and other points related to this meditation.

To reflect.

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

The way God speaks: through the natural environment.

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

On self-discovery and the divine.

46. He knows that there is always a similarity-dissimilarity.

The inconsistencies, in the eyes of God.

47. How is the finite related to the infinite, the One to the many?

A philosophical question on the air, of great interest.

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

The vibrancy of nature is practically unmatched.

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

In a superlative degree, always.

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

A metaphor to understand the function of thought.

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

Do you know the difference between signified and signifier?

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

Everything is tailored to the divine essence.

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

A disquisition about what exists.

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

Another lucubration about the limitations of human thought.

55. God has created us in his image: let us then look for this image and we shall 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 great care, the more effectively he will know the eminent Essence.

Along the lines of the previous sentence.

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

One of those deep-seated religious phrases.

58. To tend means to believe.

Reflecting on faith.

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

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 that he really is. that we cannot understand it, we can only understand rationally that it is incomprehensible; that we tend towards Him to reach Him and enjoy His presence.

On the importance of having faith.

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

A language trap can be relying too much on metaphors and similes.

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

Unimaginable does not mean unknowable.

63. We can comprehend with the saints what is the width and the length, the height and the depth, know also the super-eminent love of the knowledge of Christ so that we may be filled in all the fullness of God.

To reflect on the love of Christ.

64. The creation was nothing and at the same time it was something.

Interesting thought from Anselm of Canterbury.

65. Believing means being in contact with something or having an experience of something, and this experience is essential to know.

Apprehension that results in divine knowledge.

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

God and the defining characteristics of him.

67. The other natures are not, they receive their being from God and that is why they must glorify him.

Every natural being emanates from the wisdom of God.

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

On the concept of reality.

69. Man, by accepting that he "can't know anything or almost nothing" unites the two levels, noetic and ontic, the level of thought and the level of reality.

A metaphysical reflection to keep in mind.

70. God is my defense.

It never fails.