Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, 2010

Here are several brief thoughts from St. Thomas, culled from Josef Pieper’s The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas: A Breviary of Philosophy:

• Since the soul is only a part of human nature, it does not possess its natural perfection except in union with the body. (Spir. creat. 2 ad 5.)
• A devil knows the nature of human thought better than a man does. (Mal. 16, 8 ad 7.)
• Wherever there is intellectual knowledge, there is also free will. (ST I, 59, 3.)
• 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. (Praec.car. (princ.))
• The nature of virtue lies in good more than in difficulty. (ST II-II, 123, 12 ad 2.)

Last year’s batch.