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For authority proceeds from true reason, but reason certainly does not proceed from authority. For every authority which is not upheld by true reason is seen to be weak, whereas true reason is kept firm and immutable by her own powers and does not require to be confirmed by the assent of any authority.

— John Scotus Eriugena

Auctoritas siquidem ex vera ratione processit, ratio vero nequaquam ex auctoritate. Omnis enim auctoritas, quae vera ratione non approbatur, infirma videtur esse. Vera autem ratio, quum virtutibus suis rata atque immutabilis munitur, nullius auctoritatis adstipulatione roborari indigent.

Original text (Latin)

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Mind

More quotes by John Scotus Eriugena

Yet someone may ask: how is it that all things which are, are lights?

No one enters heaven except through philosophy.

Nemo intrat in caelum nisi per philosophiam.

When we are told that God is the maker of all things, we are simply to understand that God is in all things – that He is the substantial essence of all things.

What, then, is it to treat of philosophy, unless to lay down the rules of the true religion by which we seek rationally and adore humbly God, who is the first and sovereign cause of all things? Hence it follows that the true philosophy is the true religion, and reciprocally that the true religion is the true philosophy.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Scotus Eriugena (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.