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Friendship Is The Source Of The Greatest Pleasures, And Without Friends Even The Most Agreeable Pursuits Become Tedious.
-Thomas Aquinas
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Friendship Is The Source

Thomas Aquinas
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Friendship Is The Source Of The Greatest Pleasures, And Without Friends Even The Most Agreeable Pursuits Become Tedious.

Understanding the Quote: "friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even..."

This quote by Thomas Aquinas reflects deeply on the theme of friendship. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Friendship, Philosophical, Real Friends, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Aquinas interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas is celebrated for insightful thoughts on friendship and philosophical. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Friendship
Philosophical
Real Friends
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Here 'neath Veils, My Saviour Darkly I Behold; To My Thirsting Spirit All Thy Light Unfold; Face To Face In Heaven Let Me Come To Thee, And The Blessed Vision Of Thy Glory See.
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Parent
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Firsts
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Christian
Sex
Men
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Failing
Christ
Humans
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Heart
Compassion
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Art
Powerful
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Christian
Stars
Ocean
It May Well Happen That What Is In Itself The More Certain On Account Of The Weakness Of Our Intelligence, Which Is Dazzled By The Clearest Objects Of Nature; As The Owl Is Dazzled By The Light Of The Sun. Hence The Fact That Some Happen To Doubt About Articles Of Faith Is Not Due To The Uncertain Nature Of The Truths, But To The Weakness Of Human Intelligence; Yet The Slenderest Knowledge That May Be Obtained Of The Highest Things Is More Desirable Than The Most Certain Knowledge Obtained Of Lesser Things.
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Doors
Baptism
Because We Cannot Know What God Is, But Only What He Is Not, We Cannot Consider How He Is But Only How He Is Not.
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The Church Has Ever Proved Indestructible. Her Persecutors Have Failed To Destroy Her; In Fact, It Was During Times Of Persecution That The Church Grew More And More; While The Persecutors Themselves, And Those Whom The Church Would Destroy, Are The Very Ones Who Came To Nothing. . . .again, Errors Have Assailed Her; But In Fact, The Greater The Number Of Errors That Have Arisen, The More Has The Truth Been Made Manifest. . . . Nor Has The Church Failed Before The Assaults Of Demons: For She Is Like A Tower Of Refuge To All Who Fight Against The Devil.
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Numbers
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To Restore Man, Who Had Been Laid Low By Sin, To The Heights Of Divine Glory, The Word Of The Eternal Father, Though Containing All Things Within His Immensity, Willed To Become Small. This He Did Not By Putting Aside His Greatness But By Taking To Himself Our Littleness.
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Greatness
Men
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Catholic
Matter
Dogma
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Blessed
Men
Baptism
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Leisure
The Bread Of Angels Has Become The Bread Of Mankind; This Heavenly Bread Puts An End To All Images; O Wonderful Reality! The Poor, The Slave, And The Humble Can Eat The Lord.
Humble
Angel
Reality
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Angel
Men
Doe
How Can We Live In Harmony? First We Need To Know We Are All Madly In Love With The Same God.
Philosophical
Thoughtful
Love Is
One Cannot Use An Evil Action With Reference To A Good Intention.
Evil
Use
Action
Evil Denotes The Lack Of Good. Not Every Absence Of Good Is An Evil, For Absence May Be Taken Either In A Purely Negative Or In Aprivative Sense. Mere Negation Does Not Display The Character Of Evil, Otherwise Nonexistents Would Be Evil And Moreover, A Thing Would Be Evil For Not Possessing The Goodness Of Something Else, Which Would Mean That Man Is Bad For Not Having The Strength Of A Lion Or The Speed Of A Wild Goat. But What Is Evil Is Privation; In This Sense Blindness Means The Privation Of Sight.
Taken
Character
Mean
The Angel's Bread Is Made The Bread Of Man Today.
Angel
Men
Today
The Last End Of Every Maker, As Such, Is Himself, For What We Make We Use For Our Own Sake; And If At Any Time A Man Make A Thing For The Sake Of Something Else, It Is Referred To His Own Good, Whether His Use, His Pleasure, Or His Virtue.
Self
Makers
Ends
The Perfection Of The Effect Demonstrates The Perfection Of The Cause, For A Greater Power Brings About A More Perfect Effect. But God Is The Most Perfect Agent. Therefore, Things Created By Him Obtain Perfection From Him. So, To Detract From The Perfection Of Creatures Is To Detract From The Perfection Of Divine Power.
Perfect
Agents
Causes
Sloth Is Sluggishness Of The Mind Which Neglects To Begin Good...it Is Evil In Its Effect, If It So Oppresses Man As To Draw Him Away Entirely From Good Deeds.
Men
Evil
Sloth
A Man Has Free Choice To The Extent That He Is Rational.
Powerful
Thoughtful
Love Is
Nothing Created Has Ever Been Able To Fill The Heart Of Man. God Alone Can Fill It Infinitely.
Heart
Men
Able
But Man Is Freer Than All The Animals, On Account Of His Free-will, With Which He Is Endowed Above All Other Animals.
Animal
Men
Free Will
Down In Adoration Falling, Lo! The Sacred Host We Hail; Lo! O'er Ancient Forms Departing, Newer Rites Of Grace Prevail; Faith For All Defects Supplying, Where The Feeble Senses Fail.
Fall
Grace
Sacred
The Celebration Of Holy Mass Is As Valuable As The Death Of Jesus On The Cross.
Jesus
Sacrifice
Catholic
Anything Done Against Faith Or Conscience Is Sinful.
Done
Conscience
Beware Of The Person Of One Book.
Book
Philosophical
Reading
I Cannot Go On.... All That I Have Written Seems To Me Like So Much Straw Compared To What I Have Seen And What Has Been Revealed To Me.
Goes On
Has Beens
Straws
There Is, Therefore, A More Perfect Intellectual Life In The Angels. In Them The Intellect Does Not Proceed To Self-knowledge From Anything Exterior, But Knows Itself Through Itself.
Angel
Self
Perfect
Prostitution In The Towns Is Like The Cesspool In The Palace; Take Away The Cesspool And The Palace Will Become An Unclean And Evil Smelling-place.
Evil
Palaces
Towns
Law Has The Power To Compel: Indeed, The Ability To Enforce Is A Condition Of The Ability To Command.
Law
Ability
Command
If The Highest Aim Of A Captain Were To Preserve His Ship, He Would Keep It In Port Forever.
Inspirational
Softball
Powerful
The Soul Is Like An Uninhabited World That Comes To Life Only When God Lays His Head Against Us.
God
Soul
World
He Suddenly Announced That He Could Not Write Any More Since "all That I Have Written Seems Like Straw To Me."
Writing
Straws
Written
One Day When Thomas Aquinas Was Preaching To The Local Populace On The Love Of God, He Saw An Old Woman Listening Attentively To His Every Word. And Inspired By Her Eagerness To Learn More About Her God Whom She Loved So Dearly, He Said To The People: It Is Better To Be This Unlearned Woman, Loving God With All Her Heart, Than The Most Learned Theologian Lacking Love.
Heart
People
Listening
The Cross To Me Is Certain Salvation. The Cross Is That Which I Ever Adore. The Cross Of The Lord Is With Me. The Cross Is My Refuge.
Christianity
Lord
Salvation
All The Efforts Of The Human Mind Cannot Exhaust The Essence Of A Single Fly.
Philosophical
Thoughtful
Love Is
Venial Sin Becomes Mortal Sin When One Approves It As An End. . .
Sin
Ends
Mortal Sin
Not Everyone Who Is Enlightened By An Angel Knows That He Is Enlightened By Him.
Angel
Enlightened
Knows
A Man's Heart Is Right When He Wills What God Wills.
Heart
Men
Gods Will
Angels Transcend Every Religion, Every Philosophy, Every Creed. In Fact Angels Have No Religion As We Know It... Their Existence Precedes Every Religious System That Has Ever Existed On Earth.
Religious
Philosophy
Angel
What Does It Take To Become A Saint? Will It.
Catholic
Doe
Saint
God Has No Need For Our Worship. It Is We Who Need To Show Our Gratitude For What We Have Received.
Gratitude
Thankfulness
Needs
Reasoning Is Compared To Understanding As Movement Is To Rest, Or Acquisition To Possession.... Since Movement Always Proceeds From Something Immovable, And Ends In Something At Rest, Hence It Is That Human Reasoning, In The Order Of Inquiry And Discovery, Proceeds From Certain Things Absolutely Understood--namely, The First Principles; And, Again, In The Order Of Judgment, Returns By Analysis To First Principles, In The Light Of Which It Examines What It Has Found. Now It Is Clear That Rest And Movement Are Not To Be Referred To Different Powers, But To One And The Same.
Light
Discovery
Order
God Destines Us For An End Beyond The Grasp Of Reason.
Reason
Ends
Mistakes Are Made On Two Counts: An Argument Is Either Based On Error Or Incorrectly Developed.
Mistake
Two
Errors
The Light Of Faith Makes Us See What We Believe.
Believe
Light
Statistics
Wonder Was The Motive That Led People To Philosophy ... Wonder Is A Kind Of Desire In Knowledge. It Is The Cause Of Delight Because It Carries With It The Hope Of Discovery.
Philosophy
Knowledge
Science
The Magnitude Of The Punishment Matches The Magnitude Of The Sin. Now A Sin That Is Against God Is Infinite; The Higher The Person Against Whom It Is Committed, The Graver The Sin-it Is More Criminal To Strike A Head Of State Than A Private Citizen-and God Is Of Infinite Greatness. Therefore An Infinite Punishment Is Deserved For A Sin Committed Against Him.
Greatness
Punishment
Criminals
If Someone Knows From Experience That Daily Communion Increases Fervor Without Lessening Reverence, Then Let Him Go Every Day. But If Someone Finds That Reverence Is Lessened And Devotion Not Much Increased, Then Let Him Sometimes Abstain, So As To Draw Near Afterwards With Better Dispositions.
Christian
Holy Eucharist
Saint
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.
Teacher
Children
Angel
For Loving Draws Us More To Things Than Knowing Does, Since Good Is Found By Going To The Thing, Whereas The True Is Found When The Thing Comes To Us.
Love
Knowing
Doe
Not Everything That Is More Difficult Is More Meritorious.
Powerful
Difficult
Difficulty
Obedience Unites Us So Closely To God That It In A Way Transforms Us Into Him, So That We Have No Other Will But His. If Obedience Is Lacking, Even Prayer Cannot Be Pleasing To God.
Prayer
Way
Obedience
The Happy Man In This Life Needs Friends.
Men
Needs
This Life
Natural Inclinations Are Present In Things From God, Who Moves All Things. So It Is Impossible For The Natural Inclinations Of A Species To Be Toward Evil In Itself. But There Is In All Perfect Animals A Natural Inclination Toward Carnal Union. Therefore It Is Impossible For Carnal Union To Be Evil In Itself.
Moving
Animal
Evil
By The Divine Providence [animals] Are Intended For Man's Use... Hence It Is Not Wrong For Man To Make Use Of Them, Either By Killing Or In Any Other Way Whatsoever.
Animal
Men
Use
It Is Necessary For The Perfection Of Human Society That There Should Be Men Who Devote Their Lives To Contemplation.
Men
Perfection
Contemplation
Good And Evil Are Essential Differences Of The Act Of The Will. For Good And Evil Pertain Essentially To The Will; Just As Truth And Falsehood Pertain To The Reason, The Act Of Which Is Distinguished Essentially By The Difference Of Truth And Falsehood (according As We Say That An Opinion Is True Or False.) Consequently, Good And Evil Volition Are Acts Differing In Species.
Differences
Evil
True Or False
Concerning Perfect Blessedness Which Consists In A Vision Of God.
Perfect
Vision
Blessedness
For It Is Necessary In Every Practical Science To Proceed In A Composite (i.e. Deductive) Manner. On The Contrary In Speculative Science, It Is Necessary To Proceed In An Analytical Manner By Breaking Down The Complex Into Elementary Principles.
Science
Scientific Method
Principles
We Must Love Them Both, Those Whose Opinions We Share And Those Whose Opinions We Reject, For Both Have Labored In The Search For Truth, And Both Have Helped Us In Finding It.
Opinion
Share
Rejects
Miracles Are Signs Not To Them That Believe, But To Them That Believe Not.
Believe
Miracle
Speaking In Tongues
He Who Is Not Angry When There Is Just Cause For Anger Is Immoral. Why? Because Anger Looks To The Good Of Justice. And If You Can Live Amid Injustice Without Anger, You Are Immoral As Well As Unjust.
Justice
Looks
Unjust
The Soul, Which Is The First Principle Of Life, Is Not A Body, But The Act Of A Body; Just As Heat, Which Is The Principle Of Calefaction, Is Not A Body, But An Act Of A Body.
Soul
Body
Firsts
[it Is Appropriate That The Body And Blood Of Christ Be Truly Present In This Sacrament] Because Of The Perfection Of The New Covenant. The Sacrifices Of The Old Covenant Contained The True Sacrifice Of Christ's Passion Only In Symbol....therefore It Was Necessary That The Sacrifice Of The New Covenant, Instituted By Christ, Have Something More, Namely, That It Contain Christ Himself Who Has Suffered And Contain Him Not Only In Symbol But In Reality.
Passion
Sacrifice
Reality
"the Jews Should Not Be Allowed To Keep What They Have Obtained From Others By Usury; It Were Best That They Were Compelled To Worked So That They Could Earn Their Living Instead Of Doing Nothing But Becoming Avaricious."
Usury
Doing Nothing
Becoming
Anger And The Like Are Attributed To God On Account Of A Similitude Of Effect. Thus, Because To Punish Is Properly The Act Of An Angry Man, God's Punishment Is Metaphorically Spoken Of As His Anger.
Men
Angry Man
Accounts
Humility Is The Mark Of A Genuine Disciple.
Humility
Humble
Genuine
As The Saints Will Rejoice In All Goods, So Will The Damned Grieve For All Goods.
Powerful
Grieving
Saint
The Same Fire" (which He Decides To Be Material) " Torments The Damned In Hell And The Just In Purgatory...the Least Pain In Purgatory Exceeds The Greatest In This Life.
Pain
Fire
Hell
We Set Forth Our Petitions Before God, Not In Order To Make Known To Him Our Needs And Desires, But Rather So That We Ourselves May Realize That In These Things It Is Necessary To Turn To God For Help.
Order
Desire
Needs
Sing, My Tongue, The Saviour's Glory, Of His Flesh, The Mystery Sing; Of The Blood, All Price Exceeding, Shed By Our Immortal King, Destined, For The World's Redemption, From A Noble Womb To Spring.
Jesus
Kings
Spring
See To Whom Jesus Is Drawing Near, Three Kinds Of People: To Those Who Make Peace With Him, To Those Who Are Devoted To God, And To Those Who Are Kind To Their Neighbors.
Jesus
Drawing
People
Art Is Right Reason In The Doing Of Work.
Art
Reason
Art Is
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.
Uplifting
Christian
Prayer
If, Then, You Are Looking For The Way By Which You Should Go, Take Christ, Because He Himself Is The Way.
Powerful
Catholic
Saint
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.
Wise
Men
Relaxation
Charity Brings To Life Again Those Who Are Spiritually Dead.
Charity
To Live Well Is To Work Well, To Show A Good Activity.
Powerful
Live Well
Shows
Wonder Is The Desire Of Knowledge.
Desire
Wonder
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.
People
Causes
A Scrap Of Knowledge About Sublime Things Is Worth More Than Any Amount About Trivialities.
Sublime
Triviality
Scrap
It Seems That God Does Not Exist; Because If One Of Two Contraries Be Infinite, The Other Would Be Altogether Destroyed. But The Word "god" Means That He Is Infinite Goodness. If, Therefore, God Existed, There Would Be No Evil Discoverable; But There Is Evil In The World. Therefore God Does Not Exist.
Mean
Two
Evil
Grant Me, O Lord My God, A Mind To Know You, A Heart To Seek You, Wisdom To Find You, Conduct Pleasing To You, Faithful Perseverance In Waiting For You, And A Hope Of Finally Embracing You. Amen.
Perseverance
Heart
Waiting
The Apostles And Their Successors Are God's Vicars In Governing The Church Which Is Built On Faith And The Sacraments Of Faith. Wherefore, Just As They May Not Institute Another Church, So Neither May They Deliver Another Faith, Nor Institute Other Sacraments.
Powerful
Catholic
Church
A Song Is The Exultation Of The Mind Dwelling On Eternal Things, Bursting Forth In The Voice.
Song
Voice
Dwelling
Trending Author
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