Thomas Aquinas Quotes

Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.

The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.

A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad.

Ethics occupies a central place in philosophy because it is concerned with sin, with the origin of good and evil and with moral valuations. And since these problems have a universal significance, the sphere of ethics is wider than is generally supposed. It deals with meaning and value and its province is the world in which the distinction between good and evil is drawn, evaluations are made and meaning is sought.

Sensibility appears to me to be neither good nor evil in itself, but in its application. Under the influence of Christian principle, it makes saints and martyrs; ill-directed, or uncontrolled, it is a snare, and the source of every temptation; besides, as people cannot get it if it is not given them, to descant on it seems to me as idle as to recommend people to have black eyes or fair complexions.

Virtue is nothing else than right reason

T is the will that makes the action good or ill.

It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.

Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man's life.

The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.

There is no rational creature which is not capable both of good and evil

The more...we consider man to be free, the less we can say, that he can neglect to use reason, or choose evil in preference to good

Kant taught us that we should follow just those rules of conduct that we would want everybody to follow. Few find this generalization of The Golden Rule a great help.

It's better to die doing good than to live doing evil.

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength.

There is no such thing as character other than the habitual action, as Mr. Aristotle told us two thousand years ago.

We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness—the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

If one must do a wrong, it's best to do it pursuing power-otherwise, let's have virtue.

[T]here is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?