Daily Inspiration Quote by Thomas Aquinas

Freedom, for Aquinas, is not a mood or a right you can claim by sheer appetite; it is a skill you earn by seeing clearly. “Free choice” here is deliberately tethered to “the extent that” because Aquinas is allergic to the modern fantasy of absolute autonomy. Your will can lunge toward any shiny object, but only reason can tell you what you are actually choosing, why it matters, and whether it leads to flourishing or self-sabotage. In his moral universe, the less rational you are, the more your “choices” look like reflexes wearing a human mask.

The subtext is a quiet rebuke to two temptations: fatalism (“I couldn’t help it”) and libertinism (“I did it because I wanted to”). Aquinas refuses both. He treats irrationality not as edgy spontaneity but as a form of bondage: to impulse, to confusion, to sin, to misinformation (avant la lettre). That’s why the line lands with such force: it turns freedom into a diagnostic. If you feel most “free” when you’re most unthinking, Aquinas would say you’re confusing volatility for agency.

Context matters. Aquinas is stitching Aristotle’s psychology to Christian theology, building a system where the will aims at the good, but reason is what identifies the good in concrete situations. Rationality isn’t just IQ; it includes practical wisdom, moral formation, and the capacity to deliberate. The intent is ultimately pastoral and political: a society that wants free citizens must cultivate reason, not just remove restraints.