Occupation: Italian Dominican Friar, philosopher and Catholic priest
Born: 1225, Roccasecca, Italy
Died: 1274, Abbazia di Fossanova, Fossanova Abbey, Italy
Thomas Aquinas was one of the most influential medieval thinkers of Scholasticism and the father of the Thomistic school of theology.
Here is a list of some of his many wisdom filled quotes.
Enjoy!
Learn More About Aquinas Life Here
“To pretend angels do not exist because they are invisible is to believe we never sleep because we don’t see ourselves sleeping.”
“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.”
“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.”
“Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.”
“Better to illuminate than merely to shine to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”
“Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.”
“We are worth only as good as our joys.”
“Everything that man wants or desires, it is necessary either for its ultimate end”
“The truth is the agreement between intelligence and things.”
“The passions are in themselves neither good nor bad.”
“We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help.”
“Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.”
“To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for salvation.”
“The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.”
“How can we live in harmony? First, we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.”
“Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.”
“God should not be called an individual substance since the principle of individuation is matter.”
“Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.”
“Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”
“It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sins.”
“The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.”
“To convert somebody, go and take them by the hand and guide them.”
“If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he Himself is the way.”
“The knowledge of God is the cause of all things.”
“Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.”
“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.”
“All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.”
“A man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends.”
“Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.”
“The knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.”
“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder”.
“Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”
“Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.”
“Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man’s own will.”
“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”
“The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.”
“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.”
“We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.”
“Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.”
“Our manner of knowing is so weak that no philosopher could perfectly investigate the nature of even one little fly.”
“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”
“For loving draws us more to things than knowing does, since good is found by going to the thing, whereas the true is found when the thing comes to us.”
“Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.”
“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.”
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
“We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have laboured in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.”
“To love is to will the good of the other.”
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
“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 in reality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion.”
“We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.”
“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.”
“Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.”
“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire, and to know what he ought to do”.
“All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.”
“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.”
“Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.”
“A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.”
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
“Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.”