Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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Don't ask who said it? Ask what they said.
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Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.
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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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It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need.
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In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.
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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.
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Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God's punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger.
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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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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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A song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice.
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Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.
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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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God should not be called an individual substance, since the principle of individuation is matter.
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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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Jesus Lord, kind Pelican, Cleanse my filth with Thy blood, One drop of which can save The whole world from all its sin.
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I answer that, Even, as in the blessed in heaven there will be most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate.
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If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
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The Cross to me is certain salvation. The Cross is that which I ever adore. The Cross of the Lord is with me. The Cross is my refuge.
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Christ was either liar, lunatic, or Lord!
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See to whom Jesus is drawing near, three kinds of people: to those who make peace with him, to those who are devoted to God, and to those who are kind to their neighbors.
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Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing.
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The things that we love tell us what we are.
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It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God’s part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives.
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Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.