Thomas Aquinas Quotes About Evil

Quotes about: Evil

• 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.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Wise, Wisdom, Powerful

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1960). “St. Thomas Aquinas: Philosophical Texts”

• Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Philosophical, Evil, Catholic

  Thomas Aquinas (1997). “Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas: Volume One”, p.1013, Hackett Publishing

• In the realm of evil thoughts none induces to sin as much as do thoughts that concern the pleasure of the flesh.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Evil, Catholic, Purity And Love

• We ought to cherish the body. Our body's substance is not from an evil principle, as the Manicheans imagine, but from God. And therefore, we ought to cherish the body by the friendship of love, by which we love God.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Evil, Principles, Substance

  "Summa Theologica". Book by Thomas Aquinas, II - II, q. 25, art. 5, 1265 - 1274.

• Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Differences, Evil, True Or False

  Thomas Aquinas, Anton C. Pegis (1997). “Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Volume 2”, p.335, Hackett Publishing

• God himself would not permit evil in this world if good did not come of it for the benefit and harmony of the universe.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Evil, Benefits, World

• The fact that the evil ones, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Errors, Long, Evil

  Thomas Aquinas (1975). “Summa Contra Gentiles: Book 3: Providence”, p.266, University of Notre Dame Pess

• Sloth is sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good...it is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Men, Evil, Sloth

  Saint Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Way Publishing (2014). “The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition”, p.5673, Catholic Way Publishing

• Given the sin of impiety through which they [the Romans] sinned against the divine nature [by idolatry], the punishment that led them to sin against their own nature followed.... I say, therefore, that since they changed into lies [by idolatry] the truth about God, He brought them to ignominious passions, that is, to sins against nature; not that God led them to evil, but only that he abandoned them to evil.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Christian, Lying, Passion

• One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Evil, Use, Action

• Natural inclinations are present in things from God, who moves all things. So it is impossible for the natural inclinations of a species to be toward evil in itself. But there is in all perfect animals a natural inclination toward carnal union. Therefore it is impossible for carnal union to be evil in itself.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Moving, Animal, Evil

  Thomas Aquinas (1975). “Summa Contra Gentiles: Book 3: Providence”, p.182, University of Notre Dame Pess

• It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God’s part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Ignorance, Greatness, Animal

  "'De Potentia' ('On Power')". Book by Thomas Aquinas, q. 3, art. 6, ad 4, dhspriory.org.

• Evil denotes the lack of good. Not every absence of good is an evil, for absence may be taken either in a purely negative or in aprivative sense. Mere negation does not display the character of evil, otherwise nonexistents would be evil and moreover, a thing would be evil for not possessing the goodness of something else, which would mean that man is bad for not having the strength of a lion or the speed of a wild goat. But what is evil is privation; in this sense blindness means the privation of sight.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Taken, Character, Mean

  Saint Thomas Aquinas (1951). “Philosophical Texts”, London : Oxford University Press

• It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Mean, Two, Evil

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1845). “Summa Theologica, (Complete)”, p.42, Library of Alexandria

• They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from malice, it is possible to make a quite probable judgment that they would never come away from evil.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Heart, Opportunity, Evil

• Prostitution in the towns is like the cesspool in the palace; take away the cesspool and the palace will become an unclean and evil smelling-place.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Evil, Palaces, Towns

  "Homage to Qwert Yuiop: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (What Shakespeare Smelt)". Book by Anthony Burgess, 1986.

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