Top 100 Thomas Aquinas Quotes
#1. 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
#2. Peace is the work of justice indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity (love) directly, since charity, according to its very notion, causes peace.
Thomas Aquinas
#3. Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed.
In fact Angels have no religion as we know it ...
Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever
existed on Earth ...
Thomas Aquinas
#4. When the devil is called the god of this world, it is not because he made it, but because we serve him with our worldliness.
Thomas Aquinas
#5. It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.
Thomas Aquinas
#6. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#7. It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
Thomas Aquinas
#8. Every truth without exception- and whoever may utter it- is from the Holy Spirit.
Thomas Aquinas
#9. The truth can be perceived only through thinking, as is proven by Augustine.
Thomas Aquinas
#11. In the old law, God was praised both with musical instruments, and human voices. But the church does not use musical instruments to praise God, lest she should seem to judaize.
Thomas Aquinas
#13. See to whom Jesus is drawing near, three kinds of people: to those who make peace with him, to those who are devoted to God, and to those who are kind to their neighbors.
Thomas Aquinas
#14. Without sanctifying grace it is not possible to refrain long from mortal sin.
Thomas Aquinas
#15. For just as the first general precepts of the law of nature are self-evident to one in possession of natural reason, and have no need of promulgation, so also that of believing in God is primary and self-evident to one who has faith: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is.
Thomas Aquinas
#16. The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God.
Thomas Aquinas
#17. The blessed in the kingdom of heaven will see the punishments of the damned, in order that their bliss be more delightful for them.
Thomas Aquinas
#18. It is better to illuminate than merely to shine.
Maius est illuminare quam lucere solum.
Thomas Aquinas
#19. Bestow upon me, O Lord my God, understanding to know thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to find thee, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace thee.
Thomas Aquinas
#20. The splendor of a soul in grace is so seductive that it surpasses the beauty of all created things.
Thomas Aquinas
#21. It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin.
Thomas Aquinas
#22. All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.
Thomas Aquinas
#25. Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory, Of His Flesh, the mystery sing; Of the Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our Immortal King, Destined, for the world's redemption, From a noble Womb to spring.
Thomas Aquinas
#26. A man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends.
Thomas Aquinas
#30. 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
#31. A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.
Thomas Aquinas
#32. We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.
Thomas Aquinas
#33. It is unlawful to add anything to the words of Holy Scripture regarding the sense.
Thomas Aquinas
#34. If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame.
Thomas Aquinas
#35. Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.
Thomas Aquinas
#36. Friendship makes you feel as one with your friend.
Thomas Aquinas
#37. The image of God always abides in the soul, whether this image be obsolete and clouded over as to amount to almost nothing; or whether it be obscured or disfigured, as is the case with sinners; or whether it be clear and beautiful as is the case with the just.
Thomas Aquinas
#38. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#39. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#40. Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
Thomas Aquinas
#41. As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary.
Thomas Aquinas
#42. One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.
Thomas Aquinas
#43. It is not possible to be ignorant of the end of things if we know their beginning.
Thomas Aquinas
#44. 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
#45. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#46. Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice is dissolution.
Thomas Aquinas
#47. When fear is excessive it can make many a man despair.
Thomas Aquinas
#48. The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
Thomas Aquinas
#49. 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
#51. Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail.
Thomas Aquinas
#52. We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.
Thomas Aquinas
#53. The soul is like an uninhabited world
that comes to life only when
God lays His head
against us.
Thomas Aquinas
#54. Our manner of knowing is so weak that no philosopher could perfectly investigate the nature of even one little fly.
Thomas Aquinas
#55. There being an imminent danger for the faith, prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects.
Thomas Aquinas
#56. A thing is lovable according as it is good. But God is infinite good. Therefore He is infinitely lovable.
Thomas Aquinas
#59. Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.
Thomas Aquinas
#60. We should love others truly, for their own sakes rather than our own.
Thomas Aquinas
#61. Pipes are not to be used for teaching, nor any artificial instruments, as the harp, or the like: but whatsoever will make the hearers good men.
Thomas Aquinas
#62. The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in His divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made man, might make men gods.
Thomas Aquinas
#63. If the motion of the earth were circular, it would be violent and contrary to nature, and could not be eternal, since nothing violent is eternal . It follows, therefore, that the
earth is not moved with a circular motion.
Thomas Aquinas
#65. The Bread of angels has become the Bread of mankind; This heavenly Bread puts an end to all images; O wonderful reality! The poor, the slave, and the humble can eat the Lord.
Thomas Aquinas
#66. Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.
Thomas Aquinas
#67. It is written: "Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live" (Ex. 22:18); and: "In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land" (Ps. 100:8) ...
Thomas Aquinas
#68. Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet.
Thomas Aquinas
#69. 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
#70. Now it seems that everything in the world stems from sources other than God, since the products of nature have their source in nature; deliberate effects can be traced back to human reason or will as their source. There is no need then to assume that God exists.
Thomas Aquinas
#72. The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.
Thomas Aquinas
#73. Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.
Thomas Aquinas
#74. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#75. Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things,
Thomas Aquinas
#76. It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need
Thomas Aquinas
#77. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#78. Do not wish to jump immediately from the streams to the sea, because one has to go through easier things to the more difficult.
Thomas Aquinas
#79. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#80. How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
Thomas Aquinas
#81. Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.
Thomas Aquinas
#82. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. But regard must be had to this, after what sort each man fills his seat; for not the seat makes the Priest, but the Priest the seat; the place does not consecrate the man, but the man the place. A wicked Priest derives guilt and not honour from his Priesthood.
Thomas Aquinas
#83. It would be superfluous to receive by faith, things that can be known by natural reason
Thomas Aquinas
#84. The Cross to me is certain salvation. The Cross is that which I ever adore. The Cross of the Lord is with me. The Cross is my refuge.
Thomas Aquinas
#85. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#86. The fact that the evil ones, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement.
Thomas Aquinas
#87. The truth of the Christian faith surpasses the capacity of reason.
Thomas Aquinas
#88. Affirmative precepts are distinguished from negative whenever one is not comprised in the other; thus, that of honoring parents does not comprise that of not killing, and vice versa.
Thomas Aquinas
#89. In deliberation we may hesitate; but a deliberated act must be performed swiftly.
Thomas Aquinas
#90. He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing.
Thomas Aquinas
#91. Man can sin against nature in two ways. First, when he sins against his specific rational nature, acting contrary to reason. In this sense, we can say that every sin is a sin against man's nature, because it is against man's right reason ...
Thomas Aquinas
#92. There is, therefore, a more perfect intellectual life in the angels. In them the intellect does not proceed to self-knowledge from anything exterior, but knows itself through itself ...
Thomas Aquinas
#93. The Philosopher, too, says of the wicked (Ethic. ix, 4) that "their soul is divided against itself ... one part pulls this way, another that"; and afterwards he concludes, saying: "If wickedness makes a man so miserable, he should strain every nerve to avoid vice.
Thomas Aquinas
#94. For it is necessary in every practical science to proceed in a composite (i.e. deductive) manner. On the contrary in speculative science, it is necessary to proceed in an analytical manner by breaking down the complex into elementary principles.
Thomas Aquinas
#95. To make peace either in oneself or among others, shows a man to be a follower of God,
Thomas Aquinas
#96. O how unspeakable is this Sacrament which sets our affections ablaze with charity ... It is the fulfillment of Christ's Mystical Body.
Thomas Aquinas
#97. To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer.
Thomas Aquinas
#98. Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
Thomas Aquinas
#99. There can be no joy in living without joy in work.
Thomas Aquinas
#100. First, I say that he draws near to those who make peace with him. For God is the One who brings about peace; and where else should peace dwell than in peace?
Thomas Aquinas
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