When it comes to big names in philosophy and theology, Saint Thomas Aquinas is hard to miss. He was a Catholic priest and Dominican friar, and one of the greatest thinkers the world has ever seen.
Thomas Aquinas believed that reason and faith could work together, not against each other. He built bridges between Christian teachings and Aristotle’s philosophy, helping generations understand life, morality, and God through both logic and belief. His influence is so huge that his works are still a core part of priest and theology education today.
If you’ve ever taken even just a single class on faith or morality, you’ve probably bumped into his work.
In this article, you’ll find some of the best quotes from Thomas Aquinas. Whether you’re here for a little inspiration, research, or simple curiosity, you’ll see why his words have lasted for centuries.
Table of Contents
Best Thomas Aquinas Quotes
- “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
- “The things that we love tell us what we are.”
- “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
- “Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
- “Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”
- “Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.”
- “Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”
- “Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man’s own will.”
- “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.”
- “The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.”
Thomas Aquinas Quotes About God and Faith
- “God is pure actuality, with no potentiality whatever.”
- “The knowledge of God is the cause of things.”
- “It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation.”
- “Faith is the act of the intellect assenting to a divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God.”
- “By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.”
- “The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions.”
- “The study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.”
- “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.”
- “To love God is something greater than to know Him.”
- “Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.”
- “Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.”
- “If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ because He Himself is the way.”
- “God should not be called an individual substance since the principle of individuation is matter.”
- “Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.”
- “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.”
- “The theologian considers sin mainly as an offense against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.”
Thomas Aquinas Quotes About Wisdom and Knowledge
- “The highest knowledge we can have of God in this life is to know that we do not know Him.”
- “All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said, has its origin in the Spirit.”
- “The philosopher and the poet are alike in being big with wonder.”
- “It is better to limp along the way than to walk briskly off the way.”
- “The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.”
- “Beware of the man of one book.”
- “Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”
- “Truth can be known only through divine revelation and grace.”
- “Knowledge is power only if man knows what facts not to bother with.”
- “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
- “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.”
Thomas Aquinas Quotes on Virtue and Goodness
- “Virtue denotes a certain perfection of a power.”
- “The things that we love tell us what we are.”
- “Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.”
- “The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.”
- “The essence of virtue consists in the good rather than the difficult.”
- “It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.”
- “Patience is the root and guardian of all the virtues.”
- “Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.”
- “Charity is the form of all the virtues.”
- “Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.”
Thomas Aquinas Quotes About Life, Love, and Happiness
- “Love is the cause of all that is good.”
- “Man is not ordained to the body politic, according to all that he is and has.”
- “The ultimate perfection of man is the enjoyment of God.”
- “The happy man in this life needs friends.”
- “True peace consists in not separating ourselves from the will of God.”
- “A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.”
- “It is not possible to have a virtue without charity.”
- “The first precept of law is that good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided.”
- “Happiness is a good of the soul.”
- “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”
- “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.”
- “Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man’s own will.”
- “All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.”
- “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.”
- “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.”
- “Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.”
- “A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.”
Thomas Aquinas Quotes About Justice
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has the care of the community.”
- “Every judgment 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.”
- “Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.”
More Thomas Aquinas Quotes
- “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.”
- “Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.”
- “Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”
- “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”
- “The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.”
- “Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.”
- “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.”
- “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”
