Thomas Aquinas — "The end of man is happiness."
The end of man is happiness.
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More from Thomas Aquinas
"It is not lawful for a man to have more than one wife at a time."
"Strictly speaking, woman is a monster of nature."
"The female is a misbegotten male."
"It is not lawful to lie in order to save anyone from death."
"It is lawful to deceive the enemy in a just war."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Every human action ultimately aims at one thing: happiness. Not passing pleasure or comfort, but a lasting, complete fulfillment of what we are. Aquinas means happiness is the telos — the final purpose — that all other goals serve. You pursue money, health, friendship, and virtue not as ends in themselves but because each points toward this overarching destination. Everything humans do makes sense only in light of this ultimate aim.
Relevance to Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas spent his life synthesizing Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology, most completely in the Summa Theologica. He borrowed Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia — flourishing through reason and virtue — but gave it a Christian endpoint: the beatific vision, seeing God directly after death. For Aquinas, earthly happiness was real but incomplete; only union with God satisfied the soul's deepest longing. This quote sits at the exact intersection of his intellectual and spiritual mission.
The era
Aquinas lived in 13th-century Europe, when Aristotle's rediscovered works were flooding universities and alarming Church authorities who saw Greek philosophy as a threat to faith. Life was short, brutal, and defined by Church doctrine. Against this backdrop, declaring happiness — not just salvation — as humanity's purpose was significant: it legitimized secular reason, dignified earthly life, and reframed theology as compatible with philosophical inquiry rather than opposed to it.
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