The 70 most revealing quotes of St. Thomas Aquinas
This philosopher and religious man left a mark on the way of thinking of Christian European culture.
One of the most important thinkers who paved the way for Renaissance, his life was devoted to study, writing and teaching. The thoughts and phrases of St. Thomas Aquinas are based on the close relationship between human reason and faith.
Founder of the Thomistic school, he had an Aristotelian influence, and focused his studies on metaphysics and cosmology. All this added to a life understood as a mission to serve the Christian God and the use of philosophy to understand this dimension of the Christian faith. use of philosophy to understand the divine dimension in which he believed..
The 70 phrases of St. Thomas Aquinas
In this compilation of the phrases of St. Thomas Aquinas appear the reflections and aphorisms that best represent his philosophy.
1. Good can exist without evil, while evil cannot exist without good.
In some way or other each pole needs the shadow of the other.
2. Fear the man of a single book
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas, refers to people who have a fixed ideal and show it with frankness.
3. Beings endowed with intelligence always desire to exist, and a natural desire cannot exist in vain.
That is why they transcend through their works.
4. The scholar is the one who leads others to what he has understood: the truth.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas, values the power of people who dedicate their lives to study because they resonate in others.
5. There are particular goods that have no necessary relation to happiness, since without them one can be happy. To such goods the will does not necessarily adhere.
And such things do not appear without forcing them.
6. In order for an act to be voluntary, it must proceed from an intrinsic principle with some knowledge of the end.
If we are to offer our help it must be of free and spontaneous.
7. If a captain's highest aim were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
This phrase indicates that if we do not risk we will not see the results of what we propose.
8. To believe is an act of the understanding that assents to divine truth by the will moved by God through grace.
In this of St. Thomas Aquinas we can appreciate the reaffirmation of his faith.
9. Faith refers to things that are not seen, and hope to things that are not within reach.
A simple way to conceptualize these two elements.
10. Right is what is just or adjusted to another according to some kind of equality.
We do not all have the same perspective of what is fair.
11. The law is the prescription of reason, ordered to the common good, given by him who is charged with the care of the community.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas is focused on situations of civil coexistence.
12. God loves all that exists
In this phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas, he centers the reason for his faith.
13. Since the particular sciences leave untreated some things that need investigation, it becomes necessary the existence of a universal and first science that studies those questions that are not dealt with by the particular sciences.
About the study of different types of subjects that in his time were little taken into account.
14. Divine love, without comparison, is a force of fusion, for it desires the good for others.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas talks about unconditional love.
15. In this consists properly to love someone: to want for him the good. Therefore, in what someone loves, he wants a good for himself.
About this love that nourishes both people.
16. The essence of love is to befriend God, inasmuch as He is happy and the source of happiness."
Another phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas, focusing on the love of God, as an expression of his faith.
17. It is necessary to admit something that is absolutely necessary, whose cause of its necessity is not in another, but that he is the cause of the necessity of others. Everyone calls him God
St. Thomas Aquinas, in this phrase, makes apology of Christianity.
18. The existence of God is self-evident, but not to us, therefore, it must be demonstrated."
On the struggle and importance of opening a path to religion.
Jesus Christ is the image of God in the human.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas reinforces the idea that Jesus emanates directly from God, something that characterizes Christianity and its conception of the divine.
20. Christian spirituality has no other norm than that of following Christ the teacher.
Another phrase dedicated to religious faith.
21. Contemplate and give to others what is contemplated.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas emphasizes the importance of solidarity.
22. Mercy in itself is the greatest of virtues, since it belongs to it to pour oneself out for others and, even more, to help them in their need.
On dogmas based on mercy.
23. This is peculiar to the superior, and for this reason it is considered proper to God to have mercy, in which his omnipotence shines forth in the highest degree.
In this phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas humanizes God, and this weight is transferred to the duty of each person.
24. If someone does not love the truth, he is not a man.
Truth as an inherent and pure trait of humanity.
25. The root of freedom is found in reason. There is no freedom except in truth
The lie always enslaves us.
26. To educate is to promote the offspring to the perfect state of man as man, that is, to the state of virtue.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, dedication to study was the most important thing after faith.
27. Action follows being
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas refers to the search for the perfect state of man as man, that is, to the state of virtue.
28. The law is the prescription of reason, ordered to the common good, given by the one who is in charge of the care of the community.
One of the phrases of St. Thomas Aquinas that invite deep reflection.
29. The being of things, not their truth, is the cause of truth in the understanding.
In this phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas he alludes to the essence of all that exists as that which matters.
30. It is evident that truth exists. For he who denies that truth exists, knows that truth exists. If, then, truth does not exist, it is true that truth does not exist.
What is denied is because in some way it is being taken as something that exists.
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31. Sin offends God that which harms man.
In this sentence of St. Thomas Aquinas, he brings the idea that the basis of the relationship with God involves sin..
32. Everything that is true, whoever has said it, has its origin in the spirit.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas places the origin of knowledge in the divine.
33. Every man must invent his own path
It refers to the fact that each person can modify episodes of his life as he wishes.
34. Every movement of the will must be preceded by knowledge. But not vice versa: not every knowledge is preceded by a voluntary notion.
On the origin of the reason why we decide to do things.
35. Treat others as you wish others to treat you.
This phrase speaks about empathy and benevolence.
36. The action of understanding consists in the formality or concept of the thing known being in the cognizer; on the other hand, the act of the will is perfected by the movement toward the thing as it is in itself.
Each thing takes form according to how it moves.
38. God, who is pure act and has nothing of potentiality, has infinite active power over all other things.
A phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas that strengthens his belief.
39. As an individual, woman is a weak and defective being.
St. Thomas Aquinas' position regarding the female figure.
40. Love occupies the place that knowledge leaves
In this phrase St. Thomas Aquinas refers to the fact that love and the cognitive often go the same way.
41. Bad law, null law
If it has no utility, the law does not exist.
42. All truth, whoever says it, is of the Holy Spirit.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, the origin of value is the divine.
43. To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. For one without faith, no explanation is possible
If you do not believe in something, then you do not believe.
44. Love is not a passion, because no virtue is a passion, and all love is a "certain virtue.
In this phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas he exalts love before any other expression of affection.
45. In this life, it is better to love God than to know him.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, God is the principal reason for any reason.
46. The common good outweighs the particular good
It is better to fight for the causes of others because it allows us to grow in spirit.
47. Whatever gift we give to someone, the first gift we give him is that of loving him.
A quote from St. Thomas Aquinas on solidarity and love of neighbor.
48 . The father is to be loved more than the mother, for he is the active principle of procreation, while the mother is only the passive principle.
This phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas would be very much questioned today.
49. True love grows with difficulties; false love dies out. From experience we know that when we endure difficult trials for someone we love, love does not collapse but grows.
About honest love that builds.
50. Love leads to happiness. Only those who have it are promised eternal bliss. And without it, all else is insufficient.
This philosopher speaks to us about love.
51. The one who loves goes out of his inner self and moves to the beloved insofar as he wants his good and gives himself to get it, as if it were for himself.
On tolerance and unconditional support in the couple.
52. Any true friend wants for his friend: 1- to exist and live; 2- all good things; 3- to do him good; 4- to delight in his life together; and 5- finally, to share with him his joys and sorrows, living with him in one heart.
In this phrase St. Thomas Aquinas speaks to us about friendship.
53. A friend is better than honor, and to be loved is better than to be honored.
Above all, affection and friendship must prevail.
54. Love produces in man perfect joy. Indeed, only he who lives in charity can truly enjoy it.
Another phrase about love.
55. God, the cause of everything, by the immensity of his loving goodness, comes from within himself to fulfill all things.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, God is the answer to every kind of question.
56. The only instrument that we men have both to perfect ourselves and to live with dignity is education.
Reflections on the importance of study and knowledge.
57. The true teacher is the one who helps the pupil to reach the perfection of science.
On the role of the teacher.
58. All men by nature desire to know.
On the need for knowledge.
59 . The teacher who limits himself to answering a problem only with arguments (quoting authors) leaves the disciple with an empty head.
The use of experience in sharing knowledge has greater power.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)