Thomas Aquinas Quotes
-
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.
-
A man's heart is right when he wills what God wills.
-
Without sanctifying grace it is not possible to refrain long from mortal sin.
-
It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.
-
Gods are called many by the error of some who worshipped many deities, thinking as they did the planets and other stars were gods, and also the separate parts of the world.
-
Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend.
-
To restore man, who had been laid low by sin, to the heights of divine glory, the Word of the eternal Father, though containing all things within His immensity, willed to become small. This He did not by putting aside His greatness but by taking to Himself our littleness.
-
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.
-
If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
-
Law has the power to compel: indeed, the ability to enforce is a condition of the ability to command.
-
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
-
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
-
God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.
-
I answer that, Even, as in the blessed in heaven there will be most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate.
-
Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.
-
Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession.
-
Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments.
-
One faith, St. Paul writes (Eph. 4:5). Hold most firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church ... We must hold this for certain, namely: that the faith of the people at the present day is one with the faith of the people in past centuries. Were this not true, then we would be in a different church than they were in and, literally, the Church would not be One.
-
In questions of this sort there are two things to be observed. First, that the truth of the Scriptures be inviolably maintained. Secondly, since Scripture doth admit of diverse interpretations, that no one cling to any particular exposition with such pertinacity that, if what he supposed to be the teaching of Scripture should afterward turn out to be clearly false, he should nevertheless still presume to put it forward, lest thereby the sacred Scriptures should be exposed to the derision of unbelievers and the way of salvation should be closed to them.
-
To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.
-
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.
-
All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.
-
Since faith rests upon infallible truth, and since the contrary of a truth can never be demonstrated, it is clear that the arguments brought against faith cannot be demonstrations, but are difficulties that can be answered.
-
I receive Thee ransom of my soul. For love of Thee have I studied and kept vigil toiled preached and taught.