Sunday, March 7, 2010

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas


Words of the Dumb Ox

+ All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

+ Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.


+ Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

+ Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.


+ Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church
 
+ How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.


+ It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.


+ It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.
 
+ Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.

+ Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.
 
+ Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.


+ The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.


+ The things that we love tell us what we are.
 
+ To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

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

+ Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.


+ To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.


Happy Name Day, William Thomas and all other Thomases out there!


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