Top 100 Aquinas's Quotes
#1. Perhaps Aquinas's notably soft line on gluttony may have had something to do with the fact that the saint was said to have had what today we might call a weight problem.
Francine Prose
#2. As the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods.
Thomas Aquinas
#4. "The Jews should not be allowed to keep what they have obtained from others by usury; it were best that they were compelled to worked so that they could earn their living instead of doing nothing but becoming avaricious."
Thomas Aquinas
#6. Without sanctifying grace it is not possible to refrain long from mortal sin.
Thomas Aquinas
#7. The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.
Thomas Aquinas
#8. God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.
Thomas Aquinas
#10. 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
#11. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.
Martin Luther King Jr.
#12. Baptism is not to be conferred on a man who is unwilling to give up his other sins, so neither should Baptism be given to one who is unwilling to renounce his unbelief. Nevertheless, each of them receives the Sacrament if it is conferred on him, although not unto salvation.
Thomas Aquinas
#13. For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.
Thomas Aquinas
#14. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas).
Sam Harris
#15. The Stone is one, the Medicine is one, to which we add nothing, only in the preparation removing superfluities.
Thomas Aquinas
#17. 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
#18. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.
Thomas Aquinas
#21. To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Thomas Aquinas
#23. Concerning perfect blessedness which consists in a vision of God.
Thomas Aquinas
#24. Better to illuminate than merely to shine to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
Thomas Aquinas
#26. The truth can be perceived only through thinking, as is proven by Augustine.
Thomas Aquinas
#27. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains how, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a person's whole spiritual being becomes responsive to God's light, not only the light of knowledge but also the inspiration of love. I have prayed for the gifts of the Holy Spirit since my youth and I continue to do so.
Pope John Paul II
#29. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#30. O how unspeakable is this Sacrament which sets our affections ablaze with charity ... It is the fulfillment of Christ's Mystical Body.
Thomas Aquinas
#31. It is a sin directly against one's neighbour, since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them.
Thomas Aquinas
#32. He that obstinately denieth the truth before men upon earth, wilfully refuseth his soul's health in heaven.
Thomas Aquinas
#33. 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
#34. By the divine providence [animals] are intended for man's use ... Hence it is not wrong for man to make use of them, either by killing or in any other way whatsoever.
Thomas Aquinas
#35. The apostles and their successors are God's vicars in governing the Church which is built on faith and the sacraments of faith. Wherefore, just as they may not institute another Church, so neither may they deliver another faith, nor institute other sacraments.
Thomas Aquinas
#36. Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.
Thomas Aquinas
#37. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand.
Paul Ryan
#38. 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
#39. 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.
Thomas Aquinas
#40. It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges.
Thomas Aquinas
#41. To a recognizably Christian culture, like Shakespeare's, Jesus Christ is the Logos incarnate, the Word made flesh. He exemplifies the good of having a body. In the long run, that is why Aquinas could baptize Aristotle and why the West could produce Shakespeare and Michelangelo.
William Shakespeare
#42. Thomas Aquinas said of suffering, as Aristotle had said of shame, that it was a thing not good in itself; but a thing which might have a certain goodness in particular circumstances. That is to say, if evil is present, pain at recognition of the evil, being a kind of knowledge, is relatively good.
C.S. Lewis
#43. Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God's punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger.
Thomas Aquinas
#44. The Blessed Eucharist is the perfect Sacrament of the Lord's Passion, since It contains Christ Himself and his Passion.
Thomas Aquinas
#45. God's precepts are light to the loving, heavy to the fearful.
Thomas Aquinas
#46. 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
#47. A man's heart is right when he wills what God wills.
Thomas Aquinas
#48. Robert's problem was familiar to Aquinas. He called it ignorantia affectata, cultivated ignorance.
Greg Bear
#50. 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
#52. 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
#53. What the jogger's face shows is not boredom but contemplation, which Thomas Aquinas described as man's highest activity save one - contemplation plus putting the fruits of that contemplation into action.
George Sheehan
#54. It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.
Thomas Aquinas
#55. BEDE. (ubi sup.) Repent, therefore, and believe; that is, renounce dead works; for of what use is believing without good works? The merit of good works does not, however, bring to faith, but faith begins, that good works may follow.
Thomas Aquinas
#56. Even when I feared and detested Christianity, I was struck by its essential unity, which, in spite of its divisions, it has never lost. I trembled on recognizing the same unmistakable aroma coming from the writings of Dante and Bunyan, Thomas Aquinas and William Law.
C.S. Lewis
#57. 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
#58. Further, nothing, except sin, is contrary to an act of virtue. But war is contrary to peace. Therefore war is always a sin.
Thomas Aquinas
#59. There is nothing to unify God and the soul but the Cross.
Louis De Wohl
#60. By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
Thomas Aquinas
#61. A man should remind himself that an object of faith is not scientifically demonstrable, lest presuming to demonstrate what is of faith, he should produce inconclusive reasons and offer occasion for unbelievers to scoff at a faith based on such ground.
Thomas Aquinas
#63. Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.
Thomas Aquinas
#64. The most blessed result of prayer would be to rise thinking "But I never knew before. I never dreamed ... " I suppose it was at such a moment that Thomas Aquinas said of all his own theology, "It reminds me of straw.
C.S. Lewis
#65. Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved inreality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.
Thomas Aquinas
#66. Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need
Thomas Aquinas
#67. 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
#68. In a false person, sacraments do not produce any effect.
Thomas Aquinas
#70. Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God.
Thomas Aquinas
#71. As Aquinas, the quintessential theologian, says: "The notion of form is most fully realized in existence itself. And in God existence is not acquired by anything, but God is existence itself subsistent. It is clear, then, that God himself is both limitless and perfect."28
Rudy Rucker
#73. Again, it is self-evident that truth exists. For truth exists if anything at all is true, and if anyone denies that truth exists, he concedes that it is true that it does not exist, since if truth does not exist it is then true that it does not exist.
Thomas Aquinas
#74. Thus the sun which possesses light perfectly, can shine by itself; whereas the moon which has the nature of light imperfectly, sheds only a borrowed light.
Thomas Aquinas
#75. The celebration of Holy Mass is as valuable as the death of Jesus on the cross.
Thomas Aquinas
#76. 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
#78. Locus ab auctoritate est infirmissimus. [The argument from authority is the weakest.]
Thomas Aquinas
#79. Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.
Thomas Aquinas
#80. Every truth without exception- and whoever may utter it- is from the Holy Spirit.
Thomas Aquinas
#81. Thus Angels' Bread is made The Bread of man today: The Living Bread from Heaven With figures doth away: O wondrous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may Upon their Lord and Master feed.
Thomas Aquinas
#82. There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
Thomas Aquinas
#83. Here (in Thomas Aquinas) is the mind that prepared the way for the scientific and industrial revolutions. Here is the mind that was Catholic enough to embrace any good idea, from wherever it came.
John Mark Reynolds
#84. Now in matters of action the reason directs all things in view of the end:
Thomas Aquinas
#86. 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
#87. Hence it is predicated chiefly of the virtuous; then of the pleasant; and lastly of the useful.
Thomas Aquinas
#88. According to Aquinas, effort may not be the best measure of our virtue.
Jen Pollock Michel
#89. One aspect of neighbourly love is that we must not merely will our neighbours good, but actually work to bring it about.
Thomas Aquinas
#90. A scrap of knowledge about sublime things is worth more than any amount about trivialities.
Thomas Aquinas
#91. The world tempts us either by attaching us to it in prosperity, or by filling us with fear of adversity. But faith overcomes this in that we believe in a life to come better than this one, and hence we despise the riches of this world and we are not terrified in the face of adversity.
Thomas Aquinas
#92. While injustice is the worst of sins, despair is the most dangerous; because when you are in despair you care neither about yourself nor about others.
Thomas Aquinas
#93. It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
Thomas Aquinas
#94. 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
#96. Arrive at knowledge over small streamlets, and do not plunge immediately into the ocean, since progress must go from the easier to the more difficult.
Thomas Aquinas
#97. Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.
Thomas Aquinas
#98. I cannot go on ... All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.
Thomas Aquinas
#99. The study of truth requires a considerable effort - which is why few are willing to undertake it out of love of knowledge - despite the fact that God has implanted a natural appetite for such knowledge in the minds of men.
Thomas Aquinas
#100. Any time you feel the desire to eat a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream, commit adultery,
avoid confessing your sins, or hate your boss, your concupiscible passions are stirring.
Taylor R. Marshall
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