Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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By the divine providence animals are intended for man's use... Hence it is not wrong for man to make use of them, either by killing or in any other way whatsoever.
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Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.
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All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.
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Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.
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We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.
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Give, expecting nothing there of.
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The last end of every maker, as such, is himself, for what we make we use for our own sake; and if at any time a man make a thing for the sake of something else, it is referred to his own good, whether his use, his pleasure, or his virtue.
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Charity brings to life again those who are spiritually dead.
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He who achieves power by violence does not truly become lord or master.
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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.
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Arrive at knowledge over small streamlets, and do not plunge immediately into the ocean, since progress must go from the easier to the more difficult.
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Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.
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Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.
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It is unlawful to add anything to the words of Holy Scripture regarding the sense.
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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.
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He who does not embrace the teaching of the Church does not have the habit of faith.
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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.
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A man's heart is right when he wills what God wills.
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Justice is in subjects as well as in rulers.
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Thus Angels' Bread is made The Bread of man today: The Living Bread from Heaven With figures doth away: O wondrous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may Upon their Lord and Master feed.
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There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
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A man should remind himself that an object of faith is not scientifically demonstrable, lest presuming to demonstrate what is of faith, he should produce inconclusive reasons and offer occasion for unbelievers to scoff at a faith based on such ground.
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Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.
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The same fire" (which he decides to be material) " torments the damned in hell and the just in purgatory...The least pain in purgatory exceeds the greatest in this life.