Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Better to illuminate than merely to shine.
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Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.
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How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
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Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments.
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Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.
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O saving Victim, opening wide The gate of heaven to man below, Our foes press on from every side, Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.
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As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary.
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Without doubt one is allowed to resist against the unjust aggressor to one's life, one's goods or one's physical integrity; sometimes, even 'til the aggressor's death... In fact, this act is aimed at preserving one's life or one's goods and to make the aggressor powerless. Thus, it is a good act, which is the right of the victim.
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Just as in a physical body the operation of one member contributes to the good of the whole body, so it is in a spiritual body such as the Church. And since all the faithful are one body, the good of one member is communicated to another; everyone members, as the Apostle says, of one another. For that reason, among the points of faith handed down by the Apostles, is that there is a community of goods in the Church, and this is expressed in the words Communion of Saints.
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It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.
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The servants of God...whether provoked by word or work, by keeping themselves tranquil and peaceful, evince a perfect nobleness of soul.
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Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.
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God is not related to creatures as though belonging to a different "genus," but as transcending every "genus," and as the principle of all "genera.
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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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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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The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.
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We ought to cherish the body. Our body's substance is not from an evil principle, as the Manicheans imagine, but from God. And therefore, we ought to cherish the body by the friendship of love, by which we love God.
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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.
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Of all the pursuits open to men, the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.
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Do not wish to jump immediately from the streams to the sea, because one has to go through easier things to the more difficult.