"Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain."
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Quote collection
Thomas Aquinas quotes (page 10 of 17)
335 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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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"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."
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"It [covetousness] is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things."
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"It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation."
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"Far graver is it to corrupt the faith that is the life of the soul than to counterfeit the money that sustains temporal life."
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"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 inreality. Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion."
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"Faith does not quench desire, but inflames it."
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"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."
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"All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit."
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"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."
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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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"There is, therefore, a more perfect intellectual life in the angels. In them the intellect does not proceed to self-knowledge from anything exterior, but knows itself through itself."
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"If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices."
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"[It is appropriate that the Body and Blood of Christ be truly present in this Sacrament] because of the perfection of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant contained the true sacrifice of Christ's Passion only in symbol....Therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Covenant, instituted by Christ, have something more, namely, that it contain Christ Himself who has suffered and contain Him not only in symbol but in reality."
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"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."
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"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."
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"If someone knows from experience that daily Communion increases fervor without lessening reverence, then let him go every day. But if someone finds that reverence is lessened and devotion not much increased, then let him sometimes abstain, so as to draw near afterwards with better dispositions."
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"God should not be called an individual substance, since the principle of individuation is matter."
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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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