Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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The light of faith makes us see what we believe.
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Right faith is of necessity required for Baptism, since it is said: "the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) ... Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing and thus we must recall that without faith no one is acceptable to God.
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We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.
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...sacred doctrine is especially based upon arguments from authority, inasmuch as its principles are obtained by revelation: thus we ought to believe on the authority of those to whom the revelation has been made. Nor does this take away from the dignity of this doctrine, for although the argument from authority based on human reason is the weakest, yet the argument from authority based on divine revelation is the strongest.
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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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Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.
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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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Don't ask who said it? Ask what they said.
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Charity brings to life again those who are spiritually dead.
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Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder, as in stage – plays; or in so far as it recalls a beloved object to one's memory, and makes one feel one's love for the thing, whose absence gives us pain. Consequently, since love is pleasant, both pain and whatever else results from love, in so far as they remind us of our love, are pleasant.
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The happy man in this life needs friends.
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It is a sin to regard the fact that God cannot do the impossible as a limitation on his powers.
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Grace renders us like God and a partaker of the divine nature.
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Secondly, man sins against nature when he goes against his generic nature, that is to say, his animal nature. Now, it is evident that, in accord with natural order, the union of the sexes among animals is ordered towards conception. From this it follows that every sexual intercourse that cannot lead to conception is opposed to man's animal nature.
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If all the sins of the flesh are worthy of condemnation because by them man allows himself to be dominated by that which he has of the animal nature, much more deserving of condemnation are the sins against nature by which man degrades his own animal nature.
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Unbelief is the greatest of sins.
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Faith does not quench desire, but inflames it.
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The soul is known by it's acts.
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No man truly has joy unless he lives in love.
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He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing.
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Future contingents cannot be certain to us, because we know them as such. They can be certain only to God whose understanding is in eternity above time. Just as a man going along a road does not see those who come after him; but the man who sees the whole road from a height sees all those who are going along the road at the same time.
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Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.
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To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation.
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The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.