"Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself"
About this Quote
Thomas Aquinas treats love not as a fleeting emotion but as a power of the will that moves a person toward union with what is good. Calling love a "binding force" accents its unitive thrust: love seeks to draw the beloved into a communion with the lover, not by coercion but by a voluntary adherence. The wording "by which another is joined to me" names that desire for togetherness; "and cherished by myself" adds the interior dimension, where the other becomes present within the lover as someone regarded, guarded, and delighted in. To cherish is to take responsibility for the beloved’s good, to hold the other as precious without making them a possession. The bond is moral and affective, a consent to share life so that another’s flourishing is included in one’s own.
Aquinas writes in the 13th century, shaped by Aristotle and Christian scripture. From Aristotle he takes the idea that a friend is another self; from St. Paul he echoes charity as the bond of perfection. In the Summa Theologiae he distinguishes two acts of love: benevolence, which wills the good for the other, and union, which tends toward being with the beloved. Both are present here. The binding is the unitive dynamism; the cherishing is the benevolent custody of the beloved’s good within the lover’s heart. At its peak, charity binds humans to God and, through God, to one another, forming the fabric of community.
Read against possessive or transactional versions of love, the line is quietly radical. It proposes that true self-love expands to include others, rather than using them. The force that binds does not erase difference; it creates a shared good. To cherish is an ongoing act, a commitment that holds fast in memory, intention, and deed. Such love makes persons and societies cohere, turning many into one without turning anyone into a thing.
Aquinas writes in the 13th century, shaped by Aristotle and Christian scripture. From Aristotle he takes the idea that a friend is another self; from St. Paul he echoes charity as the bond of perfection. In the Summa Theologiae he distinguishes two acts of love: benevolence, which wills the good for the other, and union, which tends toward being with the beloved. Both are present here. The binding is the unitive dynamism; the cherishing is the benevolent custody of the beloved’s good within the lover’s heart. At its peak, charity binds humans to God and, through God, to one another, forming the fabric of community.
Read against possessive or transactional versions of love, the line is quietly radical. It proposes that true self-love expands to include others, rather than using them. The force that binds does not erase difference; it creates a shared good. To cherish is an ongoing act, a commitment that holds fast in memory, intention, and deed. Such love makes persons and societies cohere, turning many into one without turning anyone into a thing.
Quote Details
| Topic | Love |
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