Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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God's precepts are light to the loving, heavy to the fearful.
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One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.
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Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues.
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To pretend angels do not exist because they are invisible is to believe we never sleep because we don't see ourselves sleeping.
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The human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.
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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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Likewise grace and glory are referred to the same genus, since grace is nothing other than a certain first beginning of glory in us.
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To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty.
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It would seem that the ingratitude, whereby a subsequent sin causes the return of sins previously forgiven, is a special sin. For, the giving of thanks belongs to counter passion, which is a necessary condition of justice. But justice is a special virtue. Therefore this ingratitude is a special sin. Thanksgiving is a special virtue. But ingratitude is opposed to thanksgiving. Therefore ingratitude is a special sin.
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It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges.
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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.
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Christ was either liar, lunatic, or Lord!
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The things that we love tell us what we are.
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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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Because the divine goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting in one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided. Thus the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly and represents it better than any single creature.
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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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What does it take to become a saint? Will it.
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The magnitude of the punishment matches the magnitude of the sin. Now a sin that is against God is infinite; the higher the person against whom it is committed, the graver the sin-it is more criminal to strike a head of state than a private citizen-and God is of infinite greatness. Therefore an infinite punishment is deserved for a sin committed against Him.
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It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
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Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.
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If there were some solitary or feral man, the passions of the soul would be sufficient for him; by them he would be conformed to things in order that he might have knowledge of them. But because man is naturally political and social, there is need for one man to make his conceptions known to others, which is done with speech. So significant speech was needed if men were to live together. Which is why those of different tongues do not easily live together.
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Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing.
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He that obstinately denieth the truth before men upon earth, wilfully refuseth his soul's health in heaven.
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When fear is excessive it can make many a man despair.