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Moïse Maïmonide citations
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Moshe ben Maïmon, plus couramment connu en français sous le nom de Moïse Maïmonide et référé dans la littérature juive par son acronyme HaRambam , est un rabbin séfarade du XIIe siècle , considéré comme l’une des plus éminentes autorités rabbiniques du Moyen Âge.

Talmudiste, commentateur de la Mishna, jurisconsulte et décisionnaire, il est l’auteur du Mishné Torah, l’un des plus importants codes de loi juive. Philosophe, métaphysicien et théologien, il entreprend comme son contemporain Averroès une synthèse entre la révélation et la vérité scientifique, laquelle est représentée de son temps par le système d’Aristote dans la version arabe d’Al-Fârâbî. Médecin de cour et astronome, il publie aussi des traités dans ces domaines qui accroissent son prestige parmi ses contemporains juifs et non juifs. Dirigeant de la communauté juive d’Égypte, il s’emploie à juguler l’influence du karaïsme et répond aux questions et requêtes de centres aussi éloignés que l’Irak et le Yémen. Il est cependant accueilli avec plus de circonspection voire d’hostilité en France et en Espagne, où ses écrits et son rationalisme sont sujets à controverse des siècles durant.

Il sera pour les uns un « second Moïse », ainsi que l’indique son épitaphe, et pour les autres un « hérétique excommunié ». Il est également l’une des rares autorités juives à avoir influencé les mondes arabo-musulman et chrétien, notamment Thomas d'Aquin, qui le surnomme « l’Aigle de la Synagogue ».

✵ 30. mars 1138 – 13. décembre 1204
Moïse Maïmonide photo
Moïse Maïmonide: 180   citations 0   J'aime

Moïse Maïmonide: Citations en anglais

“If a person studies too much and exhausts his reflective powers, he will be confused, and will not be able to apprehend even that which had been within the power of his apprehension. For the powers of the body are all alike in this respect.”

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Maimónides

“…one should accept the truth from whatever source it proceeds.”

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Maimónides

Foreword to The Eight Chapters Of Maimonides On Ethics, translated by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, Ph.D. Columbia University Press, New York (1912). Page 35-36. https://archive.org/details/eightchaptersofm00maim
Variante: "Accept the truth from whatever source it comes." Introduction to the Shemonah Peraqim, as quoted in Truth and Compassion: Essays on Judaism and Religion in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Solomon Frank (1983) Edited by Howard Joseph, Jack Nathan Lightstone, and Michael D. Oppenheim, p. 168
Variante: You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.

“Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.”

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Maimónides

“We naturally like what we have been accustomed to, and are attracted towards it. […] The same is the case with those opinions of man to which he has been accustomed from his youth; he likes them, defends them, and shuns the opposite views.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: The Guide for the Perplexed

“Your purpose… should always be to know… the whole that was intended to be known.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: The Guide for the Perplexed

“Actions are divided as regards their object into four classes; they are either purposeless, unimportant, or vain, or good.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.25

“The proposition has… been laid down in the most general terms, "All evils are negations." Thus for man death is evil; death is his non-existence. Illness, poverty, and ignorance are evils for man; all these are privations of properties…. The destruction of other things is likewise nothing but the absence of their form. After these propositions, it must be admitted as a fact that it cannot be said of God that He directly creates evil, or He has the direct intention to produce evil; this is impossible. His works are all perfectly good. He only produces existence, and all existence is good; whilst evils are of a negative character, and cannot be acted upon.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.10

“Transient bodies are only subject to destruction through their substance and not through their form, nor can the essence of their form be destroyed; in this respect they are permanent.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.8

“The true work of God is all good, since it is existence.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.10

“There are four different theories concerning Divine Providence; they are all ancient, known from the time of the Prophets, when the true law was revealed to enlighten these dark regions.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.17

“No matter how small his portion, let him rejoice in it.”

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Maimónides

Source: Hilkhot De'ot (Laws Concerning Character Traits), Chapter 2, Section 7, p. 33

“You are no doubt aware that the Almighty, desiring to lead us to perfection and to improve our state of society, has revealed to us laws which are to regulate our actions. These laws, however, presuppose an advanced state of intellectual culture. We must first form a conception of the Existence of the Creator according to our capabilities; that is, we must have a knowledge of Metaphysics. But this discipline can only be approached after the study of Physics: for the science of Physics borders on Metaphysics, and must even precede it in the course of our studies, as is clear to all who are familiar with these questions.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Introduction

“The philosophers likewise assume that in Nature there is nothing in vain, so that everything that is not the product of human industry serves a certain purpose, which may be known or unknown to us.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.25

“After a long time the great and awful Name was forgotten and the people, men, women and children, only recognized an image of wood or stone and the temple of wood or stone which they had been brought up from infancy to serve by bowing down.”

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Maimónides livre Mishneh Torah

“Idolatry,” H. Russell, trans. (1983), p. 72
Mishneh Torah (c. 1180)

“Second Theory.—Whilst one part of the Universe owes its existence to Providence and is under control of a ruler and governor, another part is abandoned and left to chance. This is the view of Aristotle about Providence… He holds that God controls the spheres and what they contain; therefore the individual beings in the spheres remain permanently in the same form. …From the existence of the spheres other beings derive existence, which are constant in their species but not in their individuals.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.17

“Management [ Providence ], knowledge, and intention are not the same when ascribed to us and when ascribed to God.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.20

“Thus they shall not miss this particular branch of the many branches of the Law and will have no need to roam and ramble about in other books in search of information on matters set forth in this treatise.”

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Maimónides livre Mishneh Torah

Book 3 (Sefer Zemanim "Times"), Treatise 8 (Kiddush HaChodesh "Sanctification of the New Moon"), closing words
Mishneh Torah (c. 1180)

“A sensible man should not demand of me, or hope that when we mention a subject, we shall make a complete exposition of it.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Introduction

“It was necessary that the very noble form of man, which is the image and likeness of God… should be joined to the substance of dust and darkness, the source of all defect and loss. For these reasons the Creator gave to the form of man power, rule, and dominion over the substance;—the form can subdue the substance, refuse the fulfillment of its desires, and reduce them, as far as possible, to a just and proper measure.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.8

“A scholar … should turn his ears from the talk of the illiterate and not take it to heart.”

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Maimónides livre Mishneh Torah

Treatise 3: “The Study of the Torah,” H. Russell, trans. (1983), p. 69
Mishneh Torah (c. 1180)

“Every one of the six hundred and thirteen precepts serves to inculcate some truth, to remove some erroneous opinion, to establish proper relations in society, to diminish evil, to train in good manners, or to warn against bad habits. All this depends on three things: opinions, morals, and social conduct. …these three principles suffice for assigning a reason for every one of the Divine commandments.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.31

“It is frequently expressed in all parts of Scripture, that the worship of the stars would be followed by absence of rain, devastation of the land, bad times, diseases, and shortness of life. But abandonment of that worship, and the return to the service of God, would be the cause of the presence of rain, fertility of the ground, good times, health and length of life. Thus Scripture teaches, in order that man should abandon idolatry, the reverse of that which idolatrous priests preached to the people, for, as has been shown by us, the principal object of the Law is to remove this doctrine, and to destroy its traces.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.30

“This idea is confirmed in Scripture; it is distinctly stated that one sole thing, fear of God, is the object of the whole Law with its affirmative and negative precepts, its promises and its historical examples, for it is said, "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God" (Deut. xxviii. 58) This is one of the two purposes of the Akedah (sacrifice or binding of Isaac).”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.24

“This shows the kindness of God to His creatures, even to us weak beings. His righteousness and justice as regards all animals are well known; for in the transient world there is among the various kinds of animals no individual being distinguished from the rest of the same species… all physical, psychical, and vital forces and organs that are possessed by one individual are found also in the other individuals. If any one is somehow different it is by accident, in consequence of some exception, and not by a natural property; it is also a rare occurrence.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12

“It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.”

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Maimónides

Sefer Hamitzvot [Book of the Commandments], commentary on Negative Commandment 290, as translated by Charles B. Chavel (1967); also in Defending the Human Spirit : Jewish Law's Vision for a Moral Society (2006) by Warren Goldstein, p. 269

“The likeness of man above the throne is divided, the upper part being the colour of chashmal, the lower part like the appearance of fire. As regards the word chashmal, it has been explained to be the compound of two words chas and mal, including two different notions, viz., chash signifying "swiftness," and mal denoting "pause." The two different notions are here joined in one word in order to indicate figuratively the two different parts,—the upper part and the lower. We have already given a second explanation, namely, that chashmal includes the two notions of speach and silence; in accordance with the saying of our Sages, "At times they are silent, at times they speak."”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.7

“For how long is it a duty to study the Law? To the day of death.”

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Maimónides livre Mishneh Torah

Treatise 3: “The Study of the Torah,” Chapter 1, Section 9, H. Russell, trans. (1983), p. 52
Mishneh Torah (c. 1180)

“For that which is without a beginning, a final cause need not be sought.”

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Maimónides livre The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.13

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