Thomas Aquinas Quotes

144 Sourced Quotes

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

Thomas Aquinas
Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder, as in stage-plays; or in so far as it recalls a beloved object to one's memory, and makes one feel one's love for the thing, whose absence gives us pain. Consequently, since love is pleasant, both pain and whatever else results from love, in so far as they remind us of our love, are pleasant.

Thomas Aquinas
For in order that man may do well, whether in the works of the active life, or in those of the contemplative life, he needs the fellowship of friends.

Thomas Aquinas
What can be accomplished by a few principles is not effected by many. But it seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist. For all natural things can be reduced to one principle, which is nature, and all voluntary things can be reduced to one principle, which is human reason, or will. Therefore there is no need to suppose God's existence.

Thomas Aquinas
Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.

Thomas Aquinas
The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body.

Thomas Aquinas
The world of pure spirits stretches between the divine nature and the world of human beings; because divine wisdom has ordained that the higher should look after the lower, angels execute the divine plan for human salvation: they are our guardians, who free us when hindered and help to bring us home.

Thomas Aquinas
Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.

Thomas Aquinas
Every truth without exception- and whoever may utter it- is from the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Aquinas
Future contingents cannot be certain to us, because we know them as such. They can be certain only to God whose understanding is in eternity above time. Just as a man going along a road does not see those who come after him; but the man who sees the whole road from a height sees all those who are going along the road at the same time.

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
We should love others truly, for their own sakes rather than our own.

Thomas Aquinas
Baptism is the Sacrament of Faith. Now, dead faith does not suffice for salvation...Therefore, the Sacrament of Baptism cannot give salvation to a man whose will... expels the form of faith.

Thomas Aquinas
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
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
It must be understood that prime matter, and form as well, is neither generated nor corrupted, because every generation is from something to something. Now that from which generation proceeds is matter, and that to which it proceeds is form. So that, if matter or form were generated, there would be a matter for matter and a form for form, endlessly. Whence, there is generation only of the composite, properly speaking.

Thomas Aquinas
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
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
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
[sacred] doctrine is especially based upon arguments from authority, inasmuch as its principles are obtained by revelation: thus we ought to believe on the authority of those to whom the revelation has been made. Nor does this take away from the dignity of this doctrine, for although the argument from authority based on human reason is the weakest, yet the argument from authority based on divine revelation is the strongest.

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

Thomas Aquinas
Charity is not a potency of the soul, because if it were it would be natural. Nor is it a passion, because it is not in a sensitive potency in which are all passions. Nor is it a habit, because a habit is removed with difficulty; charity, however, is easily lost through one act of mortal sin. Therefore charity is not something created in the soul.

Thomas Aquinas
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
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
If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.

Thomas Aquinas
Venial sin becomes mortal sin when one approves it as an end...

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

Thomas Aquinas
The proper task of the Savior is that he is a savior; indeed, for this he came into the world: to seek and save what was lost.

Thomas Aquinas
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