Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Love, according to its very nature, causes peace." Thomas Aquinas, ST II-II, q. 29, a. 3, ad 3

2		"We gaze at the heavens and the earth, 'Why then, how much greater must the One be who formed them!' (Wisdom 13:4)." Thomas Aquinas, CGII, ch. 2 n. 3

3		"While pleasure can be entire and perfect, sadness is always partial." Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 35, a. 6

4		"God is one and wise." Thomas Aquinas, In 2 Cor, ch. 2, p. 310

5		"Prophetic words are many in and of themselves, but they are one in their origin." Thomas Aquinas, In Jer 1, p. 579

6		"The exterior acts of virtue proceed from interior choice." Thomas Aquinas, In Ethics II, L. 5, p. 136

7		"There is no existing thing that does not have some virtue….The effects of the unfailing virtue of God proceed both to human beings and to animals, and to plants and to all natural things." Thomas Aquinas, 'Commentary on Dionysius's Divine Names', n. 751, 755

8		"Light is given to the sun not to shine alone on itself but also on the whole earth. So too, God wills that all our gifts of wealth, power, knowledge should benefit others." Thomas Aquinas, In 2 Cor, ch. 1, p. 301

9		"These (morphic) fields, according to the hypothesis of formative causation, contain an inherent memory, a kind of pooled or collective memory of the species. They organize not only bodily development but also instinctive behavior and mental activity….Tthere is no doubt that much of the medieval conception of the soul as an invisible animating principle has been carried over into the field concept. This is particularly clear in the case of magnets, which were believed from ancient times until the seventeenth century to have magnetic souls within and around them. Today we would say that the properties of magnets depend on the magnetic fields within and around them. In the context of electro-magnetic fields, and particularly the properties of such fields expressed in holograms, I find (Thomas) Aquinas opens up an amazing vista of thought by inviting us to compare the pervasive nature of the soul with that of God: 'The whole human soul is in the whole body and also in every part of the body, just as God is present to the entire universe." See Rupert Sheldrake's 'A New Science of Life, Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1982, and 'The Presence of the Past', New York: Vintage, 1989

10		"The nature of things is not subject to human power, but only to divine power, whose will all things obey." Thomas Aquinas, ST II-II, q. 66, a. 1

11		"All things – not only those that have knowledge, but also those without….All things are destined and directed by God to good, and this is done in such a way that in each one is a principle by which it tends of itself to good as if seeking good itself, as if reaching for it of its own accord. For this reason it is said in the Book of Wisdom (8:1) that divine wisdom 'orders all things sweetly' because each one by its own motion tends to that for which it has been divinely destined." Thomas Aquinas, 'On Truth', q. 22, a. 1

12		"Virtue is a kind of spiritual path that assures a life of quality and purpose."

13		"Creativity is something we are all ultimately responsible for. It comes from inside us in a unique way." Matthew Fox

14		"In the making of the very least creature there is manifested the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of God." Thomas Aquinas, In III Sent 1.3, ad 3

15		"God is known through the knowledge we have, since whatever falls into our knowing, we receive as brought from God." Thomas Aquinas, DDN, n. 731, p. 274

16		"The final end of all things is the divine goodness, toward which as toward a goal all journeys and particular ends toward which things are naturally inclined are ordered." Thomas Aquinas, DDN, n. 858, pp. 321-322

17		"There is nothing that the human mind cannot understand potentially. It is capable of knowing all things. The greatness of the human person consists in this: that it is capable of the universe (capax universi)….capable of grasping the whole of being. We are also capable of embracing the whole of being." Thomas Aquinas, CG III

18		"Life is about light and darkness, joy and emptiness, pain and praise." Matthew Fox

19		"There is a kind of wealth or treasure hidden inside each one of us that must not be buried." Matthew Fox

20		"A certain circulation appears in love because it is from good and toward good and that circling agrees with the divine eternity of love, since circular motion alone can be perpetual." Thomas Aquinas, DDN, n. 450, p. 148

21		"There is an indissoluble strength in the connection of things….by virtue of the one cause containing and assembling them into one." Thomas Aquinas, DDN

22		"The Scriptures say, 'of God, and by God, and in God are all things. (Romans 11:36). God embraces in the divine self all creatures. God holds all things in Godself and not successively according to time nor divided into parts, but together. Indeed, the Godhead contains all things….All things are in God." Thomas Aquinas

23		"The life of nature and the life of the mind are not independent of the life of God; they are an expression of God's life and creative power." Rupert Sheldrake, Foreword

24		"Justice preserves the whole universe." Matthew Fox

25		"The Son of God assumed flesh and came into the world to illumine all human beings with grace and truth." Thomas Aquinas, In Jn 1. 5, n. 104