- Thomas Aquinas OP (/?‘kwa?n?s/ ?-KWY-n?s; Italian: Tommaso d’Aquino, lit.?‘Thomas of Aquino’; c.?1225 � 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, the foremost Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. He was from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Of the gladest moments in human life, methinks is the departure upon a distant journey to unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the Slavery of Home, man feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood….afresh dawns the morn of life…
Richard Francis Burton, Journal Entry (2 December 1856)