The Complete Works of Clement of Alexandria Quotes

“But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and disputation for wrangling. These arts, therefore, if not conjoined with philosophy, will be injurious to every one.”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“Above all, men   are beguiled who are either bewitched by pleasure or terrified by fear.   And all these are voluntary changes, but by none of these will   knowledge ever be attained.    ”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“We must not, then, aspire to please the multitude. For we do not   practice what will please them, but what we know is remote from their   disposition. "Let us not be desirous of vainglory," says the apostle,   "provoking one another, envying one another.”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“One speaks in one way of the truth, in another way the   truth interprets itself. The guessing at truth is one thing, and truth   itself is another. Resemblance is one thing, the thing itself is   another. And the one results from learning and practice, the other from   power and faith. For the teaching of piety is a gift, but faith is   grace. "For by doing the will of God we know the will of God.”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“Wherefore also, when Sarah was   jealous at Hagar being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what   was profitable in secular philosophy, said, "Behold, thy maid is in   thine hands: deal with her as it pleases thee;" [1867] manifestly   meaning, "I embrace secular culture as youthful, and a handmaid; but   thy knowledge I honour and reverence as true wife." And Sarah afflicted   her; which is equivalent to corrected and admonished her.”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and wisdom is the   knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes." Wisdom is   therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture.   For if philosophy "professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and   the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But   it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for   the honour and knowledge of God.”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Works of Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, On the Salvation of the Rich Man, Pædagogus and More

“occupying the beginning”
― Clement of Alexandria, The Complete Works of Clement of Alexandria

“Ce Verbe, ainsi multiplié, n'est qu'un seul et même Verbe, arrachant l'homme aux habitudes mondaines dans lesquelles il a été élevé, et le conduisant à l'unique voie de salut, qui est la foi.”
― Clément d'Alexandrie, Clement of Alexandria

“God does not punish [τιμωρεῖτα] – since punishment is the retribution of evil with further evil – but corrects [κολάζει] for the sake of those who are corrected, both in general and singularly." (Strom. 7.16.102.1-3)”
― Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria