Thomas Aquinas Quotes

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.

The human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.

The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.

But man is freer than all the animals, on account of his free-will, with which he is endowed above all other animals.

Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.

Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.

He who achieves power by violence does not truly become lord or master.

Do not wish to jump immediately from the streams to the sea, because one has to go through easier things to the more difficult.

When fear is excessive it can make many a man despair.

The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.

Reasoning is compared to understanding as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession.... Since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest, hence it is that human reasoning, in the order of inquiry and discovery, proceeds from certain things absolutely understood--namely, the first principles; and, again, in the order of judgment, returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found. Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same.

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.

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

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

Without doubt one is allowed to resist against the unjust aggressor to one's life, one's goods or one's physical integrity; sometimes, even 'til the aggressor's death... In fact, this act is aimed at preserving one's life or one's goods and to make the aggressor powerless. Thus, it is a good act, which is the right of the victim.

There can be no joy in living without joy in work.

Of all the pursuits open to men, the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.

Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.

Beware the man of a single book.

To love is to will the good of the other.

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.

You change people by delight, by pleasure.

He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.

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

The celestial bodies are the cause of all that takes place in the sublunar world.

Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species.

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.

He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing.

For in order that man may do well, whether in the works of the active life, or in those of the contemplative life, he needs the fellowship of friends.

It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need

There is no leisure about politics.

If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame.

All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.

Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend.

Peace is the work of justice indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity (love) directly, since charity, according to its very notion, causes peace.

It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.

Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.

Beware of the person of one book.

Give, expecting nothing there of.

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.

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.

If you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.

Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.

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

Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder, as in stage-plays; or in so far as it recalls a beloved object to one's memory, and makes one feel one's love for the thing, whose absence gives us pain. Consequently, since love is pleasant, both pain and whatever else results from love, in so far as they remind us of our love, are pleasant.

Wonder is the desire for knowledge.

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

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.

Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.

If there were some solitary or feral man, the passions of the soul would be sufficient for him; by them he would be conformed to things in order that he might have knowledge of them. But because man is naturally political and social, there is need for one man to make his conceptions known to others, which is done with speech. So significant speech was needed if men were to live together. Which is why those of different tongues do not easily live together.

The things that we love tell us what we are.

There is nothing in your mind which wasn't experienced before hand.

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

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

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

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

For creation is not a change, but that dependence of the created existence on the principle from which it is instituted, and thus is of the genus of relation; whence nothing prohibits itbeing in the created as in the subject. Creation is thus said to be a kind of change, according to the way of understanding, insofar as our intellect accepts one and the same thing as notexisting before and afterwards existing.

He who is dying of hunger must be fed rather than taught.

It must be understood that prime matter, and form as well, is neither generated nor corrupted, because every generation is from something to something. Now that from which generation proceeds is matter, and that to which it proceeds is form. So that, if matter or form were generated, there would be a matter for matter and a form for form, endlessly. Whence, there is generation only of the composite, properly speaking.

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