Thomas Aquinas Quotes

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“You change people by delight, by pleasure.”

“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.”

“To love is to will the good of the other.”

“Beware the man of a single book.”

“Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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