Thomas Aquinas Quotes

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.

Beware of the person of one book.

The things that we love tell us what we are.

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

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

How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.

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

To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.

A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.

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

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.

Repeticio est mater studiorum.

There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.

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.

Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.

Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.

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.

How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.

Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients.

Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.

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.

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.

The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

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.

Wonder is the desire for knowledge.

To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.

Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.

The things that we love tell us what we are.

Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.

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.

God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.

Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.

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.

Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.