Thomas Aquinas Quotes

Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.

To love is to will the good of the other.

For the greatest joy is experienced in being able to observe something concerning the loftiest realities, even if our glance upon them is brief and weak.

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.

It is on account neither of God's weakness nor ignorance that evil comes into the world, but rather it is due to the order of his wisdom and the greatness of his goodness that diverse grades of goodness occur in things, many of which would be lacking if no evil were permitted. Indeed, the good of patience would not exist without the evil of persecution; nor the good of preservation of life in a lion if not for the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives.

The Stone is one, the Medicine is one, to which we add nothing, only in the preparation removing superfluities.

The forgiveness of God

In God, there is another perfection, which inclines Him to forgive immediately the gravest and most numerous offenses, if we make a firm resolution to turn from them and truly to amend.

Even more, God forgets these offenses in return for a single lamentation for a contrite heart, as Scripture says. And if we remain in this good will, He does not contemplate vengeance for our sins later, nor does He contemplate reproaching us with them in order to dismay us, nor charging us with them in order to love us less, nor driving us away from Him by withdrawing His intimacy.

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

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 would not be a perfect likeness of God in the universe if all things were of one grade of being.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which set bounds to the passions

Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.

Thus Angels' Bread is made
The Bread of man today:
The Living Bread from Heaven
With figures doth away:
O wondrous gift indeed!
The poor and lowly may
Upon their Lord and Master feed.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which sets bounds to the passions

"John saw only the linen cloths. He, Peter, also saw the linen cloths because we [Gentiles] do not reject the Old Testament, for as Luke says, "Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Lk 24:45). But in addition Peter saw the napkin which had been on his head: "The head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3). Thus to see the napkin which had been on the head of Jesus is to have faith in the divinity of Christ, which the Jews refused to accept. This napkin is described as not lying with the linen cloths, and rolled up, having a place by itself, because the divinity of Christ is covered over, and it is apart from every creature because of its excellence: "God who is over all be blessed for ever" (Rom 9:5); "Truly, you art a God who hides yourself" (Is 45:15)."