Time & Perspective Quote by Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas making room for jokes is less a concession to levity than a tightly argued defense of human limits. In a medieval culture that could treat holiness as a kind of permanent grimace, he slips in a disarming claim: play is not the enemy of virtue; it is part of the maintenance plan. The phrase "requisite for the relaxation of the mind" does the quiet work here. He frames humor as necessity, not indulgence, like sleep or food. That rhetorical move pulls laughter out of the tavern and into the moral life.

The intent is practical theology. Aquinas is reading Aristotle through a Christian lens, especially the idea of eutrapelia, the virtue of good play: a mean between boorishness (no jokes, ever) and buffoonery (nothing but jokes). "Playful deeds and jokes" signals a broad category, from witty speech to light social behavior, implying that embodied cheerfulness matters as much as clever banter. The subtext pushes back against a strain of piety that equates seriousness with sanctity. If the mind is a creaturely instrument, it needs periodic loosening or it snaps into irritability, pride, or despair - all spiritually dangerous states.

Context matters: Aquinas is building a system where grace perfects nature rather than deleting it. Humor becomes a theological argument for balance, community, and psychological realism. He isn't baptizing stand-up comedy; he's warning that relentless austerity can be its own form of excess. Even in a world organized around salvation, he insists, the human being is still human, and God is not honored by burnout.