Thomas Aquinas Quotes
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The existence of a prime mover- nothing can move itself; there must be a first mover. The first mover is called God.
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It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.
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Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.
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Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.
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The fire of hell is called eternal, only because it never ends. Still, there is change in the pains of the lost... Hence in hell true eternity does not exist, but rather time.
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I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.
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O how unspeakable is this Sacrament which sets our affections ablaze with charity. ... It is the fulfillment of Christ's Mystical Body.
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One faith, St. Paul writes (Eph. 4:5). Hold most firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church ... We must hold this for certain, namely: that the faith of the people at the present day is one with the faith of the people in past centuries. Were this not true, then we would be in a different church than they were in and, literally, the Church would not be One.
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This Blood that but one drop of has the power to win all the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
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It is a sin to regard the fact that God cannot do the impossible as a limitation on his powers.
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All my words are but chaff next to the faith of a simple man.
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Devotion is a certain act of the will by which man gives himself promptly to divine service.
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How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
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The proper task of the Savior is that he is a savior; indeed, for this he came into the world: to seek and save what was lost.
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No man truly has joy unless he lives in love.
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Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.
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The soul is perfected by knowledge and virtue.
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Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments.
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Of all the pursuits open to men, the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.
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In a false person, sacraments do not produce any effect.
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Likewise grace and glory are referred to the same genus, since grace is nothing other than a certain first beginning of glory in us.
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Without the suitable conditions life could not exist. But both life and its conditions set forth the operations of inscrutable Power. We know not its origin; we know not its end. And the presumption, if not the degradation, rests with those who place upon the throne of the universe a magnified image of themselves, and make its doings a mere colossal imitation of their own. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.
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The last end of every maker, as such, is himself, for what we make we use for our own sake; and if at any time a man make a thing for the sake of something else, it is referred to his own good, whether his use, his pleasure, or his virtue.
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Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.
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They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from malice, it is possible to make a quite probable judgment that they would never come away from evil.
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Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species.
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The Blessed Eucharist is the perfect Sacrament of the Lord's Passion, since It contains Christ Himself and his Passion.
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The human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.
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The magnitude of the punishment matches the magnitude of the sin. Now a sin that is against God is infinite; the higher the person against whom it is committed, the graver the sin-it is more criminal to strike a head of state than a private citizen-and God is of infinite greatness. Therefore an infinite punishment is deserved for a sin committed against Him.
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It may well happen that what is in itself the more certain on account of the weakness of our intelligence, which is dazzled by the clearest objects of nature; as the owl is dazzled by the light of the sun. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of human intelligence; yet the slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained of lesser things.
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