Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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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.
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Right faith is of necessity required for Baptism, since it is said: "the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) ... Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing and thus we must recall that without faith no one is acceptable to God.
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The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.
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Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.
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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.
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God is never angry for His sake, only for ours.
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Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.
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Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him.
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If anyone without the right faith receives Baptism outside the Church, he does not receive it unto salvation ... From the comparison of the Church to Paradise, we learn that men can receive her Baptism even outside her fold, but that out there no one can receive or keep the salvation of the blessed.
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The human race was in need of salvation because of the perversity of sin. For when people who are ill are cured from their illness, they are called "saved." Therefore, the Lord says: "Your faith has saved you.
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God answered the prayers of animals.
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God's precepts are light to the loving, heavy to the fearful.
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Grace does not destroy nature, it perfects it.
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Practical sciences proceed by building up; theoretical science by resolving into components.
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Baptism is the Sacrament of Faith. Now, dead faith does not suffice for salvation .. .Therefore, the Sacrament of Baptism cannot give salvation to a man whose will ... expels the form of faith.
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Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing.
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For creation is not a change, but that dependence of the created existence on the principle from which it is instituted, and thus is of the genus of relation; whence nothing prohibits it being in the created as in the subject. Creation is thus said to be a kind of change, according to the way of understanding, insofar as our intellect accepts one and the same thing as not existing before and afterwards existing.
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The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight, defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence, cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God, enlightens the understanding to know God, inflames the will and the affections with the love of God, fills the memory with spiritual sweetness, confirms the entire man in good, frees us from eternal death, multiplies the merits of a good life, leads us to our everlasting home, and re-animates the body to eternal life.
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Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.
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The greater the charity of the Saints in their heavenly home, the more they intercede for those who are still on their journey and the more they can help them by their prayers; the more they are united with God, the more effective those prayers are. This is in accordance with Divine order, which makes higher things react upon lower things, like the brightness of the sun filling the atmosphere.
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We should love others truly, for their own sakes rather than our own.
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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.
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He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing.
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Christ was either liar, lunatic, or Lord!