For every Catholic who aspires to intellectual or creative excellence: a timeless "treasury of wisdom" about pursuing the life of the mind—drawn not only from St Thomas Aquinas, but a score of other geniuses too.

Grounding his work on St. Thomas's Sixteen Principles for Acquiring the Treasure of Knowledge, and citing the precepts and practice of the most creative minds in history, Fr. A.D. Sertillanges, OP, shows shows that the intellectual must adopt a “rule of life,” analagous to that of the religious life, which will put him entirely at the disposal of his work. First published in 1920, this authentic masterpiece had an immense circulation in France and went through repeated reprints.

• "It might well be subtitled How to Organize Your Life."
• St. Thomas: how our “likings” help us discern our vocation in life
• Explained: "Great men seem to us men of great boldness; in reality they are more obedient than others.”
• Why purity of thought requires purity of soul—while passions and vices are "formidable enemies of the mind"
• The particular virtue that is proper to the intellectual. Its two contrary vices
• Three virtues essential to creative work. Personality flaws that are especially harmful
• Why St. Thomas warns, "Do not seek what is beyond your reach." The right—and wrong—kind of ambition
• Explained: "Every study is a study of eternity"
• Guidelines for working conditions, posture, exercise, vacations, sleep, diet
• How to arrange your exterior life—framework, schedule, obligations, personal contacts, setting—so that everything is directed toward your work
• Why mortification of the senses is necessary for thought
• Dangers of excessive comfort
• Special mission and duties of the wife of an intellectual
• Children: how, despite the troubles and cares they bring, they can enrich your vocation and heighten your inspiration
• The need for solitude—and how to safeguard it
• Avoiding the false solitude that indulges "interior babble, the solicitation of desire" and other distractions.
• The difference between solitude and isolation.
• Why the former is necessary to creative and intellectual work—while the latter is paralyzing and sterilizing
• "He who knows the value of time always has enough": how to accomplish your creative work on as little as two hours a day
• The “spirit of earnestness,” the “habit of effort,” and the “habit of concentration”: why they matter; how to cultivate them
• The first rule of reading: “to read little.” The important wisdom behind this surprising advice
• Four kinds of reading—each with its own purpose and methods
• Reading for information vs. reading for formation
• The management of memory: what to remember, in what order, and how to remember it
• St. Thomas's four rules for training and using the memory
• Three essential qualities of style. What distinguishes a true and original writing style from a false and imitative one
• The "ruses of sloth"—and how to outwit them

182 pp. Hardcover