Thomas Aquinas Quotes

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

“Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved inreality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Better to illuminate than merely to shine.”

“Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.”

“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.”

“Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance. So Ambrosius says, and it is also to be found in the Decretum Gratiani: The bread which you withhold belongs to the hungry: the clothing you shut away, to the naked: and the money you bury in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless.”

“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.”

“A scrap of knowledge about sublime things is worth more than any amount about trivialities.”

“Arrive at knowledge over small streamlets, and do not plunge immediately into the ocean, since progress must go from the easier to the more difficult.”

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

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

“Without the suitable conditions life could not exist. But both life and its conditions set forth the operations of inscrutable Power. We know not its origin; we know not its end. And the presumption, if not the degradation, rests with those who place upon the throne of the universe a magnified image of themselves, and make its doings a mere colossal imitation of their own. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.”

“Practical sciences proceed by building up; theoretical science by resolving into components.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“The last end of every maker, as such, is himself, for what we make we use for our own sake; and if at any time a man make a thing for the sake of something else, it is referred to his own good, whether his use, his pleasure, or his virtue.”

“Justice is in subjects as well as in rulers.”

“It is a sin directly against one's neighbour, since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them.”

“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.”

“Love follows knowledge.”

“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”