A Quote by Thomas Aquinas

Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues.

Thomas Aquinas

Quote Topics

Charity Form Mother Root Virtues

Quote Author

Thomas Aquinas
Italian - Theologian
1225 - 1274

The existence of a prime mover- nothing can move itself; there must be a first mover. The first mover is called God.

Thomas Aquinas

The faith must express itself in charity and in solidarity, which is the civil form of charity.

Claudio Hummes

In the garden of the soul, the virtues of faith, hope, and love form the centerpiece. Traditionally called theological virtues, they come as free gifts from God and draw us to God. We cannot earn these virtues; God has already freely planted them in our soul.

Robert Morneau

Our virtues and view spring from one root.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.

Mother Teresa

Charity is the root of all good works.

Saint Augustine

Whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another. If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is put in motion by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.

Thomas Aquinas

When death strikes down the innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he lets the panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy, charity, and love, to walk the world and bless it. Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes.

Charles Dickens

The female form provides the solution in which the essence itself is held; she is passio, and acted upon, the male is actio, the mover.

Marina Warner

Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.

Thomas Moore

Every creation is, at its root, the struggle between potential form and imitated form.

Andre Malraux

Charity may cover a multitude of sins, but success transmutes them into virtues.

Hugh Kingsmill

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

Horace Mann

Charity is not one of the virtues practiced on the stock market. The heart of a bank is but one of many viscera.

Honore de Balzac

Strength, Courage, Mastery, and Honor are the alpha virtues of men all over the world. They are the fundamental virtues of men because without them, no 'higher' virtues can be entertained. You need to be alive to philosophize. You can add to these virtues and you can create rules and moral codes to govern them, but if you remove them from the equation altogether you aren't just leaving behind the virtues that are specific to men, you are abandoning the virtues that make civilization possible.