Thomas Aquinas quotes

“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.”

— 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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“It is possible to demonstrate God's existence, although not a priori, yet a posteriori from some work of His more surely known to us.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“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.”

— Thomas Aquinas