Thomas Aquinas Quotes
-
He who is dying of hunger must be fed rather than taught.
-
As the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods.
-
Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.
-
All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.
-
A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.
-
There is, therefore, a more perfect intellectual life in the angels. In them the intellect does not proceed to self-knowledge from anything exterior, but knows itself through itself.
-
Justice is in subjects as well as in rulers.
-
We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help.
-
Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail.
-
Miracles are signs not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
-
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.
-
Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.
-
Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
-
The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God.
-
Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.
-
Man can sin against nature in two ways. First, when he sins against his specific rational nature, acting contrary to reason. In this sense, we can say that every sin is a sin against man's nature, because it is against man's right reason.
-
Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved inreality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.
-
Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God.
-
The Angel's bread is made the Bread of man today.
-
Sacred Scripture, since it has no science above itself, can dispute with one who denies its principles only if the opponent admits some at least of the truths obtained through divine revelation; thus we can argue with heretics from texts in Holy Writ, and against those who deny one article of faith we can argue from another. If our opponent believes nothing of divine revelation, there is no longer any means of proving the articles of faith by reasoning, but only of answering his objections - if he has any - against faith.
-
Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.
-
Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.
-
Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species.
-
Natural inclinations are present in things from God, who moves all things. So it is impossible for the natural inclinations of a species to be toward evil in itself. But there is in all perfect animals a natural inclination toward carnal union. Therefore it is impossible for carnal union to be evil in itself.