Thomas Aquinas Quotes

144 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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
Even as in the blessed in heaven there will be most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate. Wherefore as the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods. Consequently the sight of the happiness of the saints will give them very great pain; hence it is written (Isaiah 26:11): "Let the envious people see and be confounded, and let fire devour Thy enemies." Therefore they will wish all the good were damned.

Thomas Aquinas
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
God's precepts are light to the loving, heavy to the fearful.

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

Thomas Aquinas
To scorn the dictate of reason is to scorn the commandment of God.

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

Thomas Aquinas
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
Just as a man cannot live in the flesh unless he is born in the flesh, even so a man cannot have the spiritual life of grace unless he is born again spiritually. This regeneration is effected by Baptism: "Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5)

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

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

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

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

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

Thomas Aquinas
The third principle [way doing good to another may give pleasure] is the motive: for instance when a man is moved by one whom he loves, to do good to someone: for whatever we do or suffer for a friend is pleasant, because love is the principal cause of pleasure.

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

Thomas Aquinas
Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments.

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

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

Thomas Aquinas