Works of Bonaventure Quotes

“pleasure consists in the meeting of an object and subject which are mutually adequate; and since in the Similitude of God alone is the notion of the perfectly beautiful, joyful, and wholesome, fully verified; and since He is united with us in all reality and intimacy, and with a plenitude that completely fills all capacity: it is clearly evident that in God alone is true delight, delight as in its very Source. It”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“inquires into the very principle of the pleasure the sense derives from the object.”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“When the similitude is seen as active and impressive, the impression will be well proportioned if the impressing agent fills a need of the receiver, that is, sustains and nourishes him,”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“When the similitude is seen as containing potency or power, the proportion is called pleasantness,”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“a similitude may be well proportioned in three respects. When it is seen as containing the species or form, the proportion will be called beauty, for “beauty is nothing else but harmonious proportion,” or a “certain arrangement of parts together with harmony in the colors.”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“no one can attain beatitude unless he rises above himself, not in body but in heart. Yet we cannot rise above ourselves unless a superior power lifts us up. No matter how well we plan our spiritual progress, nothing comes of it unless divine assistance intervenes. And divine assistance is there for those who seek it humbly and devoutly, who sigh for it in this vale of tears by fervent prayer.”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters

“Only then can our intellect be said truly to grasp the intelligible content of propositions, when it knows with certitude that they are true; and such certitude implies awareness that our intellect is not deceived in such grasping. The intellect, indeed, knows that this truth cannot stand differently, that this truth is unchangeable. But since our mind itself is subject to change, it could not perceive this truth as shining unchangingly, except in the beam of a certain light which is absolutely changeless, and which therefore cannot possibly be created and so subject to change. Thus, our intellect understands in the true Light that enlightens every man who comes into the world, the true Light of the Word who was in the beginning with God.”
― Bonaventure, Works of Bonaventure: Journey of the Mind To God - The Triple Way, or, Love Enkindled - The Tree of Life - The Mystical Vine - On the Perfection of Life, Addressed to Sisters