Top 250 Thomas Aquinas Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.”

— Thomas Aquinas

102. “Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature.”

— Thomas Aquinas

103. “While injustice is the worst of sins, despair is the most dangerous; because when you are in despair you care neither about yourself nor about others.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

105. “To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer.”

— Thomas Aquinas

106. “A song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

108. “Unbelief is the greatest of sins.”

— Thomas Aquinas

109. “It is not possible to be ignorant of the end of things if we know their beginning.”

— Thomas Aquinas

110. “Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.”

— Thomas Aquinas

111. “Grace is a certain beginning of glory in us.”

— Thomas Aquinas

112. “The meaning of what is said is according to the motive for saying it: because things are not subject to speech, but speech to things. Therefore we should take account of the motive of the lawgiver, rather than of his very words.”

— Thomas Aquinas

113. “The Bread of angels has become the Bread of mankind; This heavenly Bread puts an end to all images; O wonderful reality! The poor, the slave, and the humble can eat the Lord.”

— Thomas Aquinas

114. “The Blessed Eucharist is the perfect Sacrament of the Lord’s Passion, since It contains Christ Himself and his Passion.”

— Thomas Aquinas

115. “An act of love always tends towards two things; to the good that one wills, and to the person for whom one wills it.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

117. “A man should remind himself that an object of faith is not scientifically demonstrable, lest presuming to demonstrate what is of faith, he should produce inconclusive reasons and offer occasion for unbelievers to scoff at a faith based on such ground.”

— Thomas Aquinas

118. “Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him.”

— Thomas Aquinas

119. “If you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he himself is the way.”

— Thomas Aquinas

120. “Devotion is a certain act of the will by which man gives himself promptly to divine service.”

— Thomas Aquinas

121. “Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.”

— Thomas Aquinas

122. “Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.”

— Thomas Aquinas

123. “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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

124. “We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.”

— Thomas Aquinas

125. “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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

126. “One will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are.”

— Thomas Aquinas

127. “God himself would not permit evil in this world if good did not come of it for the benefit and harmony of the universe.”

— Thomas Aquinas

128. “Honor is due to God and to persons of great excellence as a sign of attestation of excellence already existing; not that honor makes them excellent.”

— Thomas Aquinas

129. “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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

130. “Whatever is received into something is received according to the condition of the receiver.”

— Thomas Aquinas

131. “To pretend angels do not exist because they are invisible is to believe we never sleep because we don’t see ourselves sleeping.”

— Thomas Aquinas

132. “Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”

— Thomas Aquinas

133. “Man can sin against nature in two ways. First, when he sins against his specific rational nature, acting contrary to reason. In this sense, we can say that every sin is a sin against man’s nature, because it is against man’s right reason...”

— Thomas Aquinas

134. “Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.”

— Thomas Aquinas

135. “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.”

— Thomas Aquinas

136. “The times are never so bad that a good man cannot live in them.”

— Thomas Aquinas

137. “To restore man, who had been laid low by sin, to the heights of divine glory, the Word of the eternal Father, though containing all things within His immensity, willed to become small. This He did not by putting aside His greatness but by taking to Himself our littleness.”

— Thomas Aquinas

138. “God answered the prayers of animals.”

— Thomas Aquinas

139. “The fact that the evil ones, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement.”

— Thomas Aquinas

140. “God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.”

— Thomas Aquinas

141. “God’s precepts are light to the loving, heavy to the fearful.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

143. “The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas

145. “Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.”

— Thomas Aquinas

146. “Grace renders us like God and a partaker of the divine nature.”

— Thomas Aquinas

147. “If all the sins of the flesh are worthy of condemnation because by them man allows himself to be dominated by that which he has of the animal nature, much more deserving of condemnation are the sins against nature by which man degrades his own animal nature...”

— Thomas Aquinas

148. “Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

— Thomas Aquinas

149. “It is a sin to regard the fact that God cannot do the impossible as a limitation on his powers.”

— Thomas Aquinas

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

— Thomas Aquinas