Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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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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If you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.
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The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.
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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.
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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.
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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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Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.
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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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Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.
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Better to illuminate than merely to shine; to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
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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 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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Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God.
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Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.
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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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Give, expecting nothing there of.
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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.
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Better to illuminate than merely to shine.
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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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If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
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He who achieves power by violence does not truly become lord or master.
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Law has the power to compel: indeed, the ability to enforce is a condition of the ability to command.
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A man's heart is right when he wills what God wills.
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All my words are but chaff next to the faith of a simple man.