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.
Thomas AquinasRead
It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.
Interpretation
The quote discusses the concept of a self-sufficient being, which is deemed necessary for the existence of everything else, identified as God.
Thomas Aquinas articulates a philosophical stance on the nature of God as that which exists independently, possessing necessary existence without external causes. This foundational being serves as the source of existence and necessity for all other entities, framing God's essence as crucial to the understanding of existence itself.
In practice
In a philosophical lecture about the nature of existence.
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.
Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.
Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
A song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice.
We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.
When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement!
Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.
Study what thou art Whereof thou art a part What thou knowest of this art This is really what thou art. All that is without thee also is within.
In thinking about religion and society in the 21st century, we should broaden the conversation about faith from doctrinal debates to the larger question of how it might inspire us to strengthen the bonds of belonging that redeem us from our solitude, helping us to construct together a gracious and generous social order.
That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.
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