"Every perfection of the soul, which is not always in act, is a habit." - Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas
Far graver is it to corrupt the faith that is the life of the soul than to counterfeit the money that sustains temporal life.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Better to illuminate than merely to shine to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.
St. Thomas Aquinas
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
St. Thomas Aquinas
I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.
St. Thomas Aquinas
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.
St. Thomas Aquinas
For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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?
St. Thomas Aquinas
We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Beware the man of a single book.
St. Thomas Aquinas
The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.
St. Thomas Aquinas
The existence of a prime mover- nothing can move itself there must be a first mover. The first mover is called God.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Wonder is the desire of knowledge.
St. Thomas Aquinas
SOURCE: http://meetville.com/quotes/author/st-thomas-aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Priest in the Dominican Order and one of the most important Medieval philosophers and theologians. He was immensely influenced by scholasticism and Aristotle and known for his synthesis of the two aforementioned traditions. Although he wrote many works of philosophy and theology throughout his life, his most influential work is the Summa Theologica which consists of three parts.
The first part is on God. In it, he gives five proofs for God's existence as well as an explication of His attributes. He argues for the actuality and incorporeality of God as the unmoved mover and describes how God moves through His thinking and willing.
The second part is on Ethics. Thomas argues for a variation of the Aristotelian Virtue Ethics. However, unlike Aristotle, he argues for a connection between the virtuous man and God by explaining how the virtuous act is one towards the blessedness of the Beatific Vision (beata visio).
The last part of the Summa is on Christ and was unfinished when Thomas died. In it, he shows how Christ not only offers salvation, but represents and protects humanity on Earth and in Heaven. This part also briefly discusses the sacraments and eschatology. The Summa remains the most influential of Thomas’s works and is mostly what will be discussed in this overview of his philosophy.
SOURCE: http://www.iep.utm.edu/aquinas/
European Graduate School
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