Famous Quotes

Quotes by 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.
• By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
• Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.
• Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
• Happiness is secured through virtue it is a good attained by man's own will.
• Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.
• How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
• 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.
• 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.
• If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.
• 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.
• 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.
• Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.
• Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.
• Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
• Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.
• Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
• 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 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 principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
• 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.
• 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.
• There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.
• Wonder is the desire for knowledge.