Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
— Thomas Aquinas
Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.
Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.
The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.
Wonder is the desire for knowledge.
Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.
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.
The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.
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.
Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.
Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.
All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.
Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.
Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.
Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.
The things that we love tell us what we are.
Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.
Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.
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.
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.
Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.
The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.
There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.
It is possible to demonstrate God's existence, although not a priori, yet a posteriori from some work of His more surely known to us.
To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.
All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.
Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.
If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.
Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
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.
Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.
God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.
It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.
Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.
Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.
As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.
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 about someone they know.
Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.
Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.
It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.
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.
In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.
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.
Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.
