Quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas

In the old law, God was praised both with musical instruments, and human voices. But the church does not use musical instruments to praise God, lest she should seem to judaize.

The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.

The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God.

If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame.

Even as in the blessed in heaven there will be most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate. Wherefore as the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods. Consequently the sight of the happiness of the saints will give them very great pain.

Human beings are by their nature social and political, living in community even more than every other animal.

It is a sin to regard the fact that God cannot do the impossible as a limitation on his powers.

By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

The celebration of Holy Mass is as valuable as the death of Jesus on the cross.

Nor can it be argued that the time required is too short to be perceived; for though this may be the case in short distances, it cannot be so in distances so great as that which separates the East from the West.

Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.