Quotes by Thomas Aquinas
- Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.
- Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.
- It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
- It is possible to demonstrate God's existence, although not a priori, yet a posteriori from some work of His more surely known to us.
- It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.
- It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.
- In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.
- If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.
- If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
- Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.
- How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.
- How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
- Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.
- Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.
- Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.
- We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.
- The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.
- The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
- Wonder is the desire for knowledge.
- Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.
- The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.
- Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.
- That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.
- To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
- To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.
- To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.
- Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
- There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
- There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.
- Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.
- Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.
- The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.
- The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.
- Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.
- Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.
- Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.
- The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.
- Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.
- The things that we love tell us what we are.
- Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.
- Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.
- Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.
- Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
- Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
- Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.
- All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.
- To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
- All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.
- God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.
- Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.
- Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
- Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.
- Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
- Beware of the person of one book.
- By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
- Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
- Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.
- Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.
- Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
- A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.