Expressions Plus

The article contains quotes by St. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican priest born during the Medieval era and a Doctor of the Church. He is best known for the work entitled, “Summa Theologica,” or “Summa Theologiae,” which serves as basis for many teachings of the Catholic Church as well as other Christian Churches and denominations.

“Christ himself is the way… In his human nature he is the way, and in his divine nature he is the goal. Therefore, speaking as man he says: I am the way; and speaking as God he adds: the truth and the life.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If then you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Friendship is the greatest source of pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“To love God is something greater that to know Him.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Christ refers only to one person in saying: I am the Good Shepherd, because he wants to emphasize the virtue of charity. Thus, no one can be a good shepherd unless he is one with Christ in charity.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If you are looking for a goal, hold fast to Christ, because he himself is the truth, where we desire to be.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“The first point about eternal life is that man is united with God. For God himself is the reward and end of all our labors.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Do not be attached, therefore, to clothing and riches, because they divided my garments among themselves. Nor to honors, for he experienced harsh words and scourgings. Nor to greatness of rank, for weaving a crown of thorns they placed it on my head. Nor to anything delightful, for in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“It was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation… it was necessary that man should be taught by a divine revelation….” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“In this life no one can fulfill his longing, nor can any creature satisfy man’s desire. Only God satisfies, he infinitely exceeds all other pleasures. That is why man can rest on nothing except God.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this?” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“… this sacrament at the Last Supper… [was] a perpetual memorial of his passion… the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles….” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Joy is the noblest human act.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“I am the Good Shepherd. Surely, it is fitting that Christ should be a shepherd, for just as a flock is guided and fed by a shepherd so the faithful are fed by Christ with spiritual food and with his own body and blood.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Eternal life consists of the joyous community of all the blessed, a community of supreme delight, since everyone will share all that is good with all the blessed. Everyone will love everyone else as himself, and therefore will rejoice in another’s good as in his own.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Faith is a habit of the mind whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is non-apparent.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“A good is eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God Himself. For we should hope from Him for nothing less than Himself, since His goodness, whereby He imparts good things to His creature, is no less than His Essence. Therefore, the proper and principal object of hope is eternal happiness.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory in us.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“I pray that this Holy Communion may not bring me condemnation and punishment but forgiveness and salvation. May it be a helmet of faith and a shield of good will. May it purify me from evil ways and put an end to my evil passions. May it bring me charity and patience, humility and obedience, and growth in the power to do good.” – St. Thomas Aquinas’ Prayer

“It is by human virtue that human acts are rendered good; hence, any habit that is always the principle of a good act, may be called a human virtue. Such a habit is living faith…. Therefore, living faith is a virtue.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If you are looking for a resting place, hold fast to Christ, because he himself is the life.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“The first bond whereby man is united to God is that of faith.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“The act of faith is perfected and formed by charity.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Perfect religion is consecrated to God by a three-fold vow: by the vow of chastity (whereby marriage is renounced), by the vow of poverty (whereby riches are sacrificed), and by the vow of obedience (whereby self-will is immolated).” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Religion… denotes properly a relation to God. For it is He to whom we ought to be bound as to our unfailing principle; to whom also our choice should be resolutely directed as to our last end; and whom we lose when we neglect Him by sin, and should recover by believing in Him and confessing our faith.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Human acts have a twofold measure: one is proximate and homogeneous, that is, reason; while the other is remote and excelling, that is, God: wherefore every human act is good, which attains reason or God Himself.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“The existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion...  The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause… The third way is taken from possibility and necessity… The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things… The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“He [God] makes use of us for his own goodness so that man may glorify him… He likewise makes use of us for our own advantage, in order that he, who desires all men to be saved, may give salvation to all.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Now man differs from irrational animals in this, that he is master of his actions… through his reason and will.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“The spiritual life consists, principally, in charity. For he who is without charity is spiritually nothing.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“For true and rightly ordered love prefers the greater to the lesser good. Now it is clear that of all human good the welfare of the soul is the greatest; next in degree comes physical well-being; and external goods occupy the last place.” – St Thomas Aquinas

“The virtue of the soul is perfected, not in the infirmity of the soul, but in the infirmity of the body.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Religion… bears a twofold meaning. Its first signification is that of re-binding which the word implies, whereby a man unites himself to God by faith and fitting worship. The second meaning of religion is the obligation whereby a man binds himself to serve God in a peculiar manner, by specified works of charity and renunciation of the world.” – St Thomas Aquinas

“The perfection of the spiritual life may be understood as signifying principally perfection as it regards charity. Now there are two precepts of charity, one pertaining to the love of God; the other referring to the love of our neighbor.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If the Lord wishes to take me away, it is better that I be found in a religious house than in the dwelling of a lay person.” – St Thomas Aquinas

“… charity attains God Himself that it may rest in Him, but not that something may accrue to us from Him. Hence charity is more excellent than faith or hope, and, consequently, than all the other virtues….” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“In heaven, the understanding and the will of every rational creature is turned to God; since it is in the fruition of the godhead that the beatitude of heaven consists.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“If in this world there be any knowledge of this sacrament [Eucharist] stronger than that of faith, I wish now to use it in affirming that I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament . . . I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for whose love I have watched, studied, and laboured.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“Nothing but you, Lord.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

Expressions Plus

Expressions Quotes: List 7,  List 8,  List 9