Quotes By Thomas Aquinas

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

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

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.

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.

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.

If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.

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

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.

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.

Wonder is the desire for knowledge.

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

Beware of the person of one book.

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

In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.

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

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.

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.

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

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.