Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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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.
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Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments.
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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.
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Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
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A man's heart is right when he wills what God wills.
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That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.
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An angel can illumine the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision and by bringing within his reach some truth which the angel himself contemplates.
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Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.
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I cannot go on.... All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.
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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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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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The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.
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The minister to whom confession is made is the delegate of Christ, Who is the Judge of the living and the dead.
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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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To love is to will the good of the other.
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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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God has no need for our worship. It is we who need to show our gratitude for what we have received.
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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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He suddenly announced that he could not write any more since "All that I have written seems like straw to me."
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Devotion is a certain act of the will by which man gives himself promptly to divine service.
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Nothing which implies contradiction falls under the omnipotence of God.
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Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
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Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.