Better To Illuminate Than Merely To

From Summa Theologica II-II, Question 188, Article 6, where Aquinas compared different forms of religious life. The original Latin — sicut enim maius est illuminare quam lucere solum, ita maius est contemplata aliis tradere quam solum contemplari — is the basis for the common English rendering. Aquinas argued that the mixed life, combining contemplation with active teaching, surpasses pure contemplation alone, just as sharing light is greater than merely possessing it. This principle, contemplata tradere, became a defining motto of the Dominican Order, to which Aquinas belonged.