Quotes By Thomas Aquinas

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

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.

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

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.

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.

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

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.

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.

The things that we love tell us what we are.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.

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

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.

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.

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

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

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.

Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.

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

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.

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

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

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.

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.