Averroes - Collected Quotes

"After logic we must proceed to philosophy proper. Here too we have to learn from our predecessors, just as in mathematics and law. Thus it is wrong to forbid the study of ancient philosophy. Harm from it is accidental, like harm from taking medicine, drinking water, or studying law." (Averroes, "The Decisive Treatise", 1178)

"If teleological study of the world is philosophy, and if the Law commands such a study, then the Law commands philosophy." (Averroes, "The Decisive Treatise", 1178)

"The double meaning has been given to suit people's diverse intelligence. The apparent contradictions are meant to stimulate the learned to deeper study." (Averroes, "The Decisive Treatise", 1178)

"To master this instrument the religious thinker must make a preliminary study of logic, just as the lawyer must study legal reasoning. This is no more heretical in the one case than in the other." (Averroes, "The Decisive Treatise", 1178)

"The Law teaches that the universe was invented and created by God, and that it did not come into being by chance or by itself. (Averroes, "On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy", 1198) 

"Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect." (Averroes)

"The necessary connexion of movement and time is real and time is something the soul constructs in movement." (Averroes)