St. Thomas Aquinas Quotes

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.

It would seem that zeal is not an effect of love. For zeal is a beginning of contention.

Do not wish to jump immediately from the streams to the sea, because one has to go through easier things to the more difficult.

For although the will cannot be inwardly moved by any creature, yet it can be moved inwardly by God.

A thing is lovable according as it is good. But God is infinite good. Therefore He is infinitely lovable.

For loving draws us more to things than knowing does, since good is found by going to the thing, whereas the true is found when the thing comes to us.

Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.

Give, expecting nothing there of.

All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.

Sloth is sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good...it is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds.

It is not possible to be ignorant of the end of things if we know their beginning.

Anything done against faith or conscience is sinful.

He who is dying of hunger must be fed rather than taught.

It is a sin directly against one's neighbour, since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them.

St Thomas (Aqinas) loved books and lived on books... When asked for what he thanked God most, he answered simply, ‘I have understood every page I ever read’.

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.

He who achieves power by violence does not truly become lord or master.

One will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are.

An act of love always tends towards two things; to the good that one wills, and to the person for whom one wills it.

Practical sciences proceed by building up; theoretical science by resolving into components.

Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.

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.

In a false person, sacraments do not produce any effect.

Being born he have himself as our Companion, Eating with us he gave himself as Food, Dying He became our Ransom, Reigning he gives himself as our Reward

A scrap of knowledge about sublime things is worth more than any amount about trivialities.

It would be superfluous to receive by faith, things that can be known by natural reason

To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to contemning the command of God.

Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing

As the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods.

Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him.

He that obstinately denieth the truth before men upon earth, wilfully refuseth his soul's health in heaven.

God answered the prayers of animals.

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.

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.

It is unlawful to add anything to the words of Holy Scripture regarding the sense.

Godhead here in hiding, whom I adore Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art

Here 'neath veils, my Saviour darkly I behold; To my thirsting spirit all thy light unfold; Face to face in heaven let me come to thee, And the blessed vision of thy glory see.

Justice is in subjects as well as in rulers.

The custom of the Church has very great authority and ought to be jealously observed in all things.

He suddenly announced that he could not write any more since "All that I have written seems like straw to me."

I receive Thee ransom of my soul. For love of Thee have I studied and kept vigil toiled preached and taught.

The Angel's bread is made the Bread of man today.

There is nothing in your mind which wasn't experienced before hand.

So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power.

He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing.

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.

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.

There would not be a perfect likeness of God in the universe if all things were of one grade of being.

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.