Syllogisms made from simple propositions are better understood than those made from compound propositions.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Thomas d’Aquin
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, he is also known within the latter as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis.
There is a double consequence [...]: when one proceeds by the position of the antecedent, and [...] when one proceeds by the destruction of the consequent.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; but he is a man, therefore he is an animal.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Every man who runs moves, but Sortes does not move, therefore Sortes does not run.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; if he is an animal, he is a substance; but he is not a substance, therefore he is not a man.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If [the proposition] 'he is not a man' is false, it is verified by this one, 'he is a man', and vice versa.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Either he is healthy, or he is sick; but he is not healthy, therefore he is sick.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
For a reduplicative proposition to be true, the [...] propositions that expose it [...] must be true, and if one of them were false, it would be false itself.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[Propositions] are sometimes made by reason of concomitance, [...] sometimes by reason of cause.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The reduplicative proposition by reason of cause requires, to be true, [...] that what the reduplication falls upon expresses the cause of what is carried by the predicate.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
From 'every man is an animal', it does not follow that 'every animal is a man', for 'animal' says more than 'man'.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Non-animal is said of fewer things than non-man, because non-animal is said of all beings except animals, [while] non-man is said of all beings and animals, except for man.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is no conversion in the particular negative [...] because a species is said negatively of its genus, as in 'some animal is not a man', but not vice versa.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Syllogisms made from simple propositions are better understood than those made from compound propositions [...]
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is a double consequence: [...] in the affirmation, when one proceeds by affirming the antecedent, and in the contrary, when one proceeds by the destruction of the consequent.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; but he is a man, therefore he is an animal.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is not a stone; but he is a man, therefore he is not a stone.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Every man who runs moves, but Sortes does not move, therefore Sortes does not run.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Either he is healthy, or he is sick; but he is not healthy, therefore he is sick.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Either he is well, or he is sick; but he is not sick, therefore he is well.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; if he is an animal, he is a substance; but he is a man, therefore he is a substance.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; if he is an animal, he is a substance; but he is not a substance, therefore he is not a man.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If he is a man, he is an animal; if he is a stone, he is not an animal; but he is a man, therefore he is not a stone.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The reduplicative proposition [...] requires for its truth that that on which the reduplication falls expresses the cause of what is carried by the predicate.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Every man is an animal, it does not follow that every animal is a man, for 'animal' says more than 'man'.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One can say 'some animal is not a man', but not vice versa.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[...] heat is the cause of heating.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The word Passover means passage [...] when we pass from the devil to Jesus Christ, and from this inconstant world into the kingdom whose foundations are unshakable.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Only those who unjustly usurp honors refuse to humble themselves for fear of losing the dignities they have seized without any right.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Jesus Christ is the end of the law [...], the end that perfects and not the end that brings death.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The devil sends [...] his suggestions into souls to mingle them with man's thoughts.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Dinner is the understanding of the ancient Scriptures, while the supper is the knowledge of the mysteries hidden in the New Testament.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Humility is sufficient to lead to God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
One can say, with good intention but out of ignorance, something that is not advantageous.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The affections of the human heart [...] are like the feet; and earthly things affect us [...] to such an extent that if we claim to be without any sin, we deceive ourselves.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Let us confess our sins to one another, forgive each other's faults, pray for one another's faults, and we will have, in a way, washed each other's feet.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
When our body bows and lowers itself to our brothers' feet, the feeling of humility is either aroused in our heart, or strengthened if it was already there.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The soul of the Christian can [...] be troubled, not by suffering, but by a feeling of compassion.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Do not love one another as men who seek only to corrupt [...] but love one another as those who love each other because they are gods, and sons of the Most High.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is by this sign that true holiness is recognized, as it is by this sign that the Savior recognizes his disciples.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Why so much presumption? Learn then what you are: [...] you who promise to die for me? You will deny three times the one who is your life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The consideration of his fall teaches us how much man must be wary of his own strength.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Just as all men naturally desire to know the truth, so too do they all have a natural desire to avoid error and to combat it when they can.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
Among all errors, the most shameful is that which is committed regarding the intellect, by means of which we are made to avoid error and to know the truth.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
If one denies the difference of the intellect among all men [...] it follows that nothing of men's souls remains after death [...] and that there is neither punishment nor reward.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The soul [...] is the first act of an organized physical body.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
What is animate differs in existence from what is inanimate, and there are many things that pertain to life, such as intelligence, sensation, and movement.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
It is clear that there is a great difference between sensation and thought.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The soul is first that which gives us life, [...] that which gives us sensation, [...] that which gives us movement, [...] that which gives us intelligence.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The last of the forms, which is the human soul, has a power altogether superior to the matter of the body, namely [...] the intellect.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
Each being acts insofar as it exists, and its acts are in conformity with its mode of existence.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The proper operation of man as man is to understand. For it is by this that he differs from other animals.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
If the intellect is not some part of a man [...] there will be no will in that man [...] and so that man will not be the master of his actions, [...] which is to destroy the principles of moral philosophy.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
It is not in the order of things for superior substances to have recourse to inferior ones to attain their principal perfections.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The intellect is what is principal in man, and it uses all the powers of the soul and all the members of the body as its instruments.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
The possible intellect is in potency, before it knows or learns anything, like a tablet on which nothing has been written.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
Nothing prevents a thing which does not have in its nature the reason for another thing, from nevertheless being able to have it from another cause.
1270
Source: On the Unity of the Intellect
There are professions that one absolutely cannot, or cannot without great difficulty, practice without sin. The truly converted heart must therefore completely detach itself from everything that can lead it to sin.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The sea is the figure of the present age, which is shattered by the shock of tumultuous events and the waves of this corruptible life, while the firm land of the shore is the symbol of the stability of eternal rest.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The roasted fish is the figure of Jesus Christ in his passion; he deigned to hide himself in the waters of the human race, he allowed himself to be caught in the nets of our mortality.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Nothing makes us more worthy of divine benevolence than the care we take of our neighbor.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To his triple denial corresponds a triple confession; his tongue must become the organ of his love as it was of his fear.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Those who shepherd the sheep of Jesus Christ with the intention of making them their own sheep [...] are proven to love themselves instead of loving Jesus Christ, to be led by the desire for glory, domination, or self-interest rather than by charity.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He who loves himself instead of loving God does not truly love himself, for since he cannot live by himself, by loving only himself he condemns himself to death.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
In divine matters, [...] it is in old age that virtue has more brilliance, more skill, more application, without age posing any obstacle.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is an honor and a glory to suffer for Jesus Christ. For, a Christian would never consent to suffer death [...] if his spirit were not certain that He is truly God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The Church knows two different lives that divine preaching has taught it: one is the life of faith, the other the life of clear vision.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Let the perfect active life [...] follow [Jesus] by imitating the example He gave in His passion, and let the contemplative life [...] remain until He comes to give it its full perfection.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Let no one, however, think of separating these two illustrious apostles, for both lived the life personified in Peter, just as both were one day to live the life of which John was the figure.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
These words should not be understood in the sense that the whole expanse of the world would not be enough to contain all these books, but that the capacity of the readers of the whole world would not be enough to comprehend them.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is much easier for [God] to do the works He willed than it is for us to recount them.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
As relation has little of entity, Aristotle does not deal with it, but only with relatives which [...] are more likely to be known by us.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
For a relation to be real, five things are required: two on the side of the subject, two on the side of the term, and one on the side of the things that are the object of the relation.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[...] there is no real relation of a thing to itself.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is no real relation of God to the creature, because all that is in God is not in the genus of relation.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[Relatives] are those things whose being consists in relating in some way to another thing.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If an Indian became white, he would become similar to me, and I to him, without my undergoing any change. Indeed, similarity adds nothing real to the whiteness within me.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The division of being into ten predicaments is a division into ten really different things.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The property of relatives is that by definitively knowing one, one definitively knows the other.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If the definition is a discourse explaining what the being of a thing is [...], he who knows the being of a relative must necessarily know the being of its correlative.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
A thing can be predicated of another in two ways: [...] by something intrinsic to it [...] or by that which is not formally in the thing denominated, but is something absolute and extrinsic.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Action, passion, and motion are one and the same thing.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
It is the property of action to produce passion from itself.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One does not say that water becomes hot because there is heat in it, but because this heat comes to it from the agent that heats it.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Time being nothing other than a successive quantity of motion, can be taken [...] in a broad sense for any successive quantity of motion.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The property of quando [the when] is to be found in everything that begins to be.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The syllogism is a discourse in which, certain principles having been laid down [...], a result must follow from what has been laid down and agreed upon.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The proposition [...] is an enunciation which, being posited, entails another.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Logic has two parts, namely, the inventive part and the judicative part.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The probable is that which is regarded as such by all men, or by a great number, or by the wise [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Judgment [...] is the right determination of reason in the things to which judgment relates.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Science [...] is effected through causes, that is, when reason resolves effects into their causes.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The subject is that of which something is affirmed. The predicate is that which is affirmed of another thing.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Universal [propositions] being true, particular ones are always true, but not vice versa.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The intellect grasps without discoursing [...]. On the contrary, reason [...] only appropriates what it grasps by discoursing.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[Reason] only comes to perfectly possess the knowledge of a thing by going from the better known to the lesser known.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
What is more known to us is more universal [...] our discursive action in our cognition thus goes from the more universal to the less universal.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If in any matter true premises lead to a false conclusion, [...] then it will no longer be a true syllogism; it is called a useless chain.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If one of the premises is negative, the conclusion is also negative.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If one of the premises is particular, the conclusion is also particular.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The ostensive syllogism draws a true conclusion from two true premises; whereas the syllogism ad impossibile [...] from a false premise draws an obviously false conclusion.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
It is a greater miracle [...] to have healed the diseases of the soul than to have remedied the ailments of this perishable and mortal body.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The entire universe could present itself and grace would not be exhausted [...] the multitude of those who partake in the grace of the Holy Spirit in no way diminishes its divine efficacy.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The sight of God requires silence and secrecy.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Carry the one with whom you walk if you wish to reach the one with whom you desire to dwell eternally.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
As we are most of the time insensitive to the diseases of our soul [...] God strikes the body as a punishment for the sins of the soul.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The gravity of sin should not be calculated based on the time a man took to commit it, but on the very nature of those sins.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
If we do not all receive the punishment for our sins here below, let us not place our trust in this impunity, for it foretells for us much more terrible punishments in the future life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The world would be destroyed in the blink of an eye if God withdrew His regulating action from it.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
When we say: It is impossible for God to sin, we are not accusing Him of impotence, but attesting to His ineffable power.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
If you cannot understand what God is, at least understand what He is not: you will have gained much if you do not have thoughts about God that are contrary to His divine nature.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The Father and the Son have the same power and the same will.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Faith is the step that must be taken to arrive at understanding, which is the fruit of faith.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
If you take so much care [...] to prolong your life by a few days, what should you not do to make it eternal?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He who thinks of advancing his own interests will easily be suspected of having distorted justice; but he who is not guided by personal views is not liable to pronounce unjust judgments.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Position is the order or disposition of parts in a place.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is a threefold whole: the universal, the potential, and the integral whole...
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
A universal whole is called a genus whose subjective parts are species.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The soul is a potential whole in relation to its powers, and each of its powers is called a potential force.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is an [...] integral whole whose parts, when separated from the whole, can naturally exist by themselves.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Science [...] designates a certain relation to that which is susceptible to being known by science.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[...] passion, [...] although subjectively in the object that undergoes it, nevertheless names the patient by an extrinsic denomination, because it only names it by reason of the agent, which is external.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
As [...] the one who established [these predicaments] has no great authority [...] it follows that everyone today can think and say what he pleases about them.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Which of these opinions is the more probable, I leave to the judgment of the reader.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Position admits neither of more nor of less.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[Situation] does not admit of contrariety.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
To assist, in the sense in which this word is used here, is to be in relation.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Quantity affects the material thing before any accident.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The substantial form which gives being informs prime matter.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[The] Quantum is that which is divisible into ever-divisible parts.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
It must be known that the predicaments [highest categories] cannot be defined.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[...] our intellect abstracts not only the universal from the particular, but also the form from the subject of that form.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[...] as our knowledge comes to us from the senses, the least sensible things are also the least known to us.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
We come to acquire knowledge [of abstract things] through concrete things, as they are known beforehand.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Habit is a disposition by which one is well or ill disposed, either in regard to oneself or in regard to another.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Beauty [...] is the rightful commensuration of the limbs.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
A virtuous habit, which is contracted by the repetition of acts, is not for that reason easily moved [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Potency and act divide all being [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
No created substance can by itself be a sufficient principle of action [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Nothing can be at the same time active and passive in regard to the same thing.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
To see is to undergo something.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Potency is defined by its acts [...], and acts are defined by their objects [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Passion is fleeting; like the redness produced by shame, and the paleness that comes from fear [...].
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Figure makes us know the substance [...] better than any other accident.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One may doubt whether justice itself admits of more or less, but one does not have this doubt about the just person, who is called [...] more just.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He who imagines he can bear fruit by himself is not united to the vine; he who is not in the vine is not in Jesus Christ, and he who is not in Jesus Christ is not a Christian.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Without me, you can do nothing.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
For the branch, there is no other alternative than to be united with the vine or to be thrown into the fire. If it does not remain attached to the vine, it will be thrown into the fire; let it therefore remain united with the vine to avoid the fire.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
If his words remain only in memory, and no trace of them is found in life, the branch is no longer part of the vine, because it no longer draws its life from the root.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Therefore, we do not keep his commandments to merit his love, but we cannot keep them unless he loves us first. This is the grace which is revealed to the humble and remains hidden from the proud.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The great and unique proof of love is to love those who are opposed to us.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Where there is charity, what can we lack? But if charity does not exist, what compensation can remain for us?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
How will he who, in time of peace, cannot sacrifice his tunic for God, be able to give his life when persecution comes?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is by the one and same virtue of charity that we love God and our neighbor, with this sole difference that we love God for God's sake, and we love our neighbor and ourselves for God's sake.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The censure of the wicked is an approval of our life; it is a clear sign that we are beginning to have some justice when we begin to displease those who do not please God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
We were evil and we were chosen to become good by the grace of him who chose us.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The works which have for their object eternal life survive death, and the fruit of these works begins to appear when the fruit of carnal works is forever annihilated.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To hate without cause or gratuitously is to hate without hope of any advantage, without fear of any danger; this is the character of the hatred of the impious for God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The love we have for heavenly goods already gives us knowledge of them, because love itself is a kind of knowledge.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Art, in the voice as in a subject, forms nouns, verbs, and discourse.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Meaning is to a noun as its form, while the letter or syllables are its matter.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Imperfect discourse [...] holds the mind in suspense, because it is missing something, which is why it is imperfect.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The use of the significant voice is to make known the conceptions of the speaker's intellect to the one who listens.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Only enunciative discourse, which signifies the true or the false, [...] is our subject; other types of discourse [...] belong rather to rhetoric or poetics.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Truth is the adequation of the thing and the intellect.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The true consists in being what it is and in not being what it is not; the false in being what it is not and in not being what it is.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The practical intellect is compared to artificial things, as the measure to the thing measured; conversely, the speculative intellect is compared to the things it conceives as the thing measured to the measure.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The intellect knows the true only by composing or dividing, according to its judgment, and if this judgment is in agreement with things, it will be true.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
From the perspective of the intellect, affirmation, which signifies composition, is prior to negation, which signifies division.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Contradiction is an opposition which in itself admits no middle ground.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
In contingent matter, both contraries can be false.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Every true conditional is necessary, and [...] every false conditional is impossible, because [...] the term of the consequent necessarily follows from the term of the antecedent.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Truth or falsity are only found in the enunciation, as in a sign.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is no middle ground between being and not being, and one excludes the other [...]; the same is true of contradictories, because one attributes being and the other non-being to the same subject.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
'Where' (Ubi) is the circumscription of a body arising from the circumscription of place.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Place is the surface of an immobile containing body.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
A thing can be in a place in two ways, namely, definitively and circumscriptively.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[Certain things] contain the place rather than being contained in the place.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Local motion is not in a place as such, but is in the predicament of 'where' (ubi).
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Place does not move, since it is the term of the immobile container, whereas the located thing moves.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
In alteration [...], an intrinsic form is acquired. [...] But in local motion, what is acquired is 'where' (ubi), which names extrinsically.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
'Where' (ubi) admits neither more, nor less, nor contrariety.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
There is nothing contrary to place.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The body is that which is limited by a surface or by surfaces, and this is the nature of the body as a body.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
As nature abhors a vacuum, it is necessary that [a body] immediately adjoin another surface which, being immobile, is called place.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The property of 'where' (ubi) is to be in every terminated body [...], because place is not due to the indivisible as such.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
If, indeed, there were an infinite body, [...] this body would not be in 'where' (ubi).
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The located thing and the place are in an adequate relation.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
When we try to resist audacious men, they become more furious; if, on the contrary, we choose to yield to them, we see their fury immediately subside.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
[...] solitude is the best preparation for the study of wisdom and the meditation of divine things.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
There is a temptation that leads directly to sin, and it can never be the work of God [...]. There is also a temptation whose purpose is to test faith.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
What did not exist, now exists; one sees what one does not understand, and the only thought that remains is that of the omnipotence of God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The miracles of Providence [...] have lost their splendor for us because they are renewed every day; [God] has reserved some extraordinary works [...] to move by novelty [...] those on whom the wonders of every day no longer make an impression.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To eat this food and drink this beverage is, therefore, to abide in Jesus Christ, and to have Jesus Christ abiding in oneself.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The soul departed from God because it was proud; it is by pride that we were cast out, it is by humility alone that we can return.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Pride, indeed, wants only to do its own will; humility, on the contrary, does the will of God.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
God allows us to be in the midst of dangers, to test our courage [...] and to teach us to turn to Him alone who can save us even when all hope is lost.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is when human intelligence is at the end of its resources and declares its powerlessness that the help of God arrives.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
How many there are still who seek Jesus only to obtain temporal favors? [...] scarcely are any found who seek Jesus for His own sake.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Labor not for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures to eternal life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To believe in Jesus Christ is, therefore, to love Him in believing, to unite faith with love, to unite oneself to Him through faith and become part of the body of which He is the head.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is not by walking that we draw near to Jesus Christ, but by believing; it is not by a movement of our body, but by the will of our heart.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
What does the soul desire more keenly than the truth? [...] Give me a soul that loves, [...] that hungers and thirsts in the solitude of this life, a soul that sighs for the fountain of the eternal homeland, and it will understand what I say.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The Lord wanted to teach us to bear with the wicked so as not to divide the body of Jesus Christ. [...] If you are good, tolerate the wicked to obtain the reward of the good, and not to share the punishment of the wicked.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Jesus [...] entrusted, although he was a thief, the purse of the poor, to remove any pretext, any excuse for his betrayal...
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Senseless plan, blind cruelty! Could not the Lord, who was able to resurrect a dead man, resurrect him if he were killed?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The perfume [...] is the symbol of justice [...]. Cover the feet of Jesus with perfumes through a holy life, follow the Lord's footsteps, [...] if you have a surplus, give it to the poor, and you will have wiped the Lord's feet.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The Lord's head represents the sublime height of his divinity, and his feet the humility of his incarnation; or again, the head is Jesus Christ himself, the feet are the poor who are his members.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Jesus Christ was not king of Israel to impose tributes, to raise and arm troops, but to govern souls and lead them into the kingdom of heaven.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is not enough for you to bear my death with patience; if you do not die yourselves, you have no fruit to hope for from my death.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Therefore, do not love your soul in this life, so as not to lose it in eternal life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To hate one's soul is to resist its guilty desires. [...] When our soul suggests thoughts contrary to the law of God, we must reject it with horror.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
To serve Jesus Christ is therefore not to seek one's own interests, but those of Jesus Christ. [...] let him walk in my ways, and not in his own.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Let the servant of Jesus Christ love him with a selfless love, so that the reward for devotion to his service may be to be with him.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
It is no more a crime to desire to preserve this present life than it is a crime to feel the need of hunger. The body of Jesus Christ was pure from all sin, but it was not free from the infirmities of our nature.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
God, in His knowledge of the future, predicted the disbelief [...] without being its author; for God forces no man to sin, simply because He foresees the sins men will commit.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
God blinds and hardens, by abandoning and refusing his help, which he can do by a secret judgment, but which can never be unjust.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
All saints are therefore lights; but it is by believing in Jesus Christ that they are enlightened by him, from whom one cannot be separated without falling back into darkness.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [...], an abundance of peace is also shed in the souls of those who love God's law, and for them there is no stumbling block.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Their zeal for the glory of God is not a zeal directed by knowledge.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Let it be enough for your consolation to think that you are suffering for me and for my Father.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The inner sight that the Holy Spirit was to give as a consolation was far preferable.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
You are not capable of receiving the Holy Spirit as long as you continue to know Jesus Christ only according to the flesh.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The just shall live by faith.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The world is convicted of sin because it does not believe in Jesus Christ, and it is also convicted concerning the justice of those who believe, for the very example of the faithful is the condemnation of the unfaithful.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The fullness of truth is reserved for us in the next life, and in this one the Holy Spirit teaches the faithful [...] while exciting in their hearts an ever keener desire for these same truths.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
For the Holy Spirit, to hear is to know, and to know is to be.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Nothing is better suited to calm a soul plunged in sadness and affliction than the frequent contemplation of the reasons that produced this sadness in it.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
[The] words of the Lord can be applied to all Christians who strive for eternal joys through the tears and sufferings of this life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Sorrow begets joy, [...] this sorrow will be short, while [the] joy will have no end.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
God loves his work in us, but God would not have done in us what is worthy of his love if, before doing so, he had not loved us first.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Any prayer whose object is contrary to the interests of our salvation is not made in the name of the Savior [...].
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Place in [Christ] all your consolation and your inner strength, for from the world, you have nothing to expect but oppression and persecution.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The Evangelists, in their love for the truth, were not afraid to recount the facts that appeared most unfavorable to their Master.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Our homeland is on the heights, the path that leads to it is humble: he who refuses to follow the path, seeks the homeland in vain.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Therefore, do not seek to understand in order to arrive at faith, but begin by believing in order to arrive at understanding.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
All his glory comes from within [...], from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Do not judge by appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. [...] it is not on the importance of persons that you should base your judgment, but on the very nature of things.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Envy separates, charity unites; have charity, and you will possess everything with it.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He who leads from good to evil is a bad seducer; he who brings back from evil to good is a good seducer.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
What a consolation [...] to think that what is said of you was said before of Jesus Christ!
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He manifested, when He willed, His divine power [...] because He wished to serve as an example for our weakness.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Is it not [...] to live as if in tents, to regard this life as a pilgrimage and an exile?
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
The bosom of the inner man is the conscience of his heart. [...] When the conscience has drunk this divine liquor, it is purified and takes on a new life.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
[He] was not an unbeliever but timid in his faith [...] he wanted to be enlightened, but he feared being known.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
When the soul is not corrupted, it does not need long speeches.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Jesus wishes [...] to pave through humility the path that leads to glory.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
He who seeks his own glory is an Antichrist. Our Lord [...] sought not his own glory, but that of his Father.
1263-1264
Source: Detailed Explanation of the Four Gospels
Habitus is the adjacency of bodies and of that which surrounds them.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Between the subject that has a substance [...] and the thing possessed, there is no real relation, but only a relation of reason.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Nature has provided other animals with clothing and weapons. [...] For man, [...] it has given him intelligence and hands, so that he could provide himself with what is necessary.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
In animals, clothing and weapons are substantial parts of those same animals; [...] but between our clothing, our weapons, and us, there is a real relation.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
[The predicament of habitus] is suitable only for humans. It is also true that we dress [...] certain animals with clothing that is foreign to them.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The created substance as such relates really to the creator, and this relation is immediately founded in it.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One does not indifferently make clothes [...] from any kind of substance, but one takes a substance that has such a quality, as softness, ease of folding.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One will never say that someone is more or less clothed or more or less shod by reason of a single shoe or a single garment.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
One can say of a man that he is more clothed if he has several garments, and less clothed if he has fewer.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
It is by the reception of more and less that contrariety is effected [...] as is seen with white and black.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The relation habitus is not founded immediately in the substance [...] [but] by means of some quality, such as hardness, softness.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
A thing is denominated by habitus because the habitus is adjacent to some specific integral part, as a man is said to be shod by his feet.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
The predicaments belong to the first operation of the intellect, in which there is no composition by being, nor any division by non-being.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic
Logic is not only a rational science [...] but it is also an argumentative science.
c. 1270
Source: Commentary on Aristotle's Logic