Thomas Aquinas Quotes

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.

- Thomas Aquinas

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

- Thomas Aquinas

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

- Thomas Aquinas

Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

- Thomas Aquinas

Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.

- Thomas Aquinas

To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.

- Thomas Aquinas

Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.

- Thomas Aquinas

How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.

- Thomas Aquinas

In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.

- Thomas Aquinas

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.

- Thomas Aquinas

Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.

- Thomas Aquinas

Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

- Thomas Aquinas

Beware of the person of one book.

- Thomas Aquinas

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.

- Thomas Aquinas

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

- Thomas Aquinas

Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.

- Thomas Aquinas

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

- Thomas Aquinas

The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.

- Thomas Aquinas

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

- Thomas Aquinas

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.

- Thomas Aquinas

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.

- Thomas Aquinas

The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

- Thomas Aquinas

Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.

- Thomas Aquinas

Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.

- Thomas Aquinas

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.

- Thomas Aquinas

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

- Thomas Aquinas

How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.

- Thomas Aquinas

Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.

- Thomas Aquinas

Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.

- Thomas Aquinas

Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.

- Thomas Aquinas

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.

- Thomas Aquinas

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

- Thomas Aquinas

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.

- Thomas Aquinas

All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

- Thomas Aquinas

There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.

- Thomas Aquinas

A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

- Thomas Aquinas

Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.

- Thomas Aquinas

Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.

- Thomas Aquinas

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

- Thomas Aquinas

The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.

- Thomas Aquinas

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.

- Thomas Aquinas

It is possible to demonstrate God's existence, although not a priori, yet a posteriori from some work of His more surely known to us.

- Thomas Aquinas

Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.

- Thomas Aquinas

Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.

- Thomas Aquinas

Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.

- Thomas Aquinas

Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.

- Thomas Aquinas

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

- Thomas Aquinas

Wonder is the desire for knowledge.

- Thomas Aquinas

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

- Thomas Aquinas

If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.

- Thomas Aquinas

Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.

- Thomas Aquinas

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.

- Thomas Aquinas

God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.

- Thomas Aquinas

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.

- Thomas Aquinas

Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.

- Thomas Aquinas

Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.

- Thomas Aquinas

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

- Thomas Aquinas

The things that we love tell us what we are.

- Thomas Aquinas

If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.

- Thomas Aquinas

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

- Thomas Aquinas

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

- Thomas Aquinas

The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.

- Thomas Aquinas

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.

- Thomas Aquinas

By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.

- Thomas Aquinas

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.

- Thomas Aquinas

To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.

- Thomas Aquinas

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.

- Thomas Aquinas