Thomas Aquinas Quotes

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.

There is no leisure about politics.

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 human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.

Faith does not quench desire, but inflames it.

God answered the prayers of animals.

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

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

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

It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.

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.

Far graver is it to corrupt the faith that is the life of the soul than to counterfeit the money that sustains temporal life.

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.

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

It is altogether unlawful to kill oneself... Wherefore suicide is contrary to the inclination of nature, and to charity whereby every man should love himself... Life is God's gift to man, and is subject to His power, Who kills and makes to live. Hence whoever takes his own life, sins against God... for it belongs to God alone to pronounce sentence of death and life.

Now it seems that everything in the world stems from sources other than God, since the products of nature have their source in nature; deliberate effects can be traced back to human reason or will as their source. There is no need then to assume that God exists.

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.

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

The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.

There can be no joy in living without joy in work.

One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.

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.

A man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends.

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

The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.

The existence of a prime mover- nothing can move itself; there must be a first mover. The first mover is called God.

One day when Thomas Aquinas was preaching to the local populace on the love of God, he saw an old woman listening attentively to his every word. And inspired by her eagerness to learn more about her God whom she loved so dearly, he said to the people: It is better to be this unlearned woman, loving God with all her heart, than the most learned theologian lacking love.

Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 Some there are who presume so far on their wits that they think themselves capable of measuring the whole nature of things by their intellect, in that they esteem all things true which they see, and false which they see not. Accordingly, in order that man's mind might be freed from this presumption, and seek the truth humbly, it was necessary that certain things far surpassing his intellect should be proposed to man by God.

Unbelief is the greatest of sins.

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.

We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.

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

You change people by delight, by pleasure.

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

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

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

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

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

Every cell in us worships God.

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.

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.

The Cross to me is certain salvation. The Cross is that which I ever adore. The Cross of the Lord is with me. The Cross is my refuge.

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.

Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues.

If you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.

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