"[…] the least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand-fold. Admit, for instance, the existence of a minimum magnitude, and you will find that the minimum which you have introduced, small as it is, causes the greatest truths of mathematics to totter. The reason is that a principle is great rather in power than in extent; hence that which was small at the start turns out a giant at the end." (St. Thomas Aquinas, "De Ente et Essentia", cca. 1252)
"If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments where one suffices." (Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica", cca. 1266-1273)
"It is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many." (Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica", cca. 1266-1273)
"Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: first for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle, as in natural science, where sufficient proof can be brought to show that the movement of the heavens is always of uniform velocity. Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results […]" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica", cca. 1266-1273)
"The existence of an actual infinite multitude is impossible. For any set of things one considers must be a specific set. And sets of things are specified by the number of things in them. Now no number is infinite, for number results from counting through a set of units. So no set of things can actually be inherently unlimited, nor can it happen to be unlimited." (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica", cca. 1266-1273)
"The universal cause is one thing, a particular cause another. An effect can be haphazard with respect to the plan of the second, but not of the first. For an effect is not taken out of the scope of one particular cause save by another particular cause which prevents it, as when wood dowsed with water, will not catch fire. The first cause, however, cannot have a random effect in its own order, since all particular causes are comprehended in its causality. When an effect does escape from a system of particular causality, we speak of it as fortuitous or a chance happening […]" (Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica", cca. 1266-1273)
"We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end. Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God." (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologia", cca. 1266-1273)
"Nor is it enough to say that the intelligible notions formed by the active intellect subsist somehow in the phantasmata (mental image), which are certainly intrinsic to us; for as we have already observed in treating the passive intellect, objects only become actually intelligible when abstracted from phantasmata; so that merely by way of the phantasmata, we cannot attribute the work of the active intellect to ourselves" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "De Anima" III, cca. 1268) [On Aristotle's phantasmata]
"Practical sciences proceed by building up; theoretical sciences by resolving into components." (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Sententia libri Ethicorum" [Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics], 1271)
"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." (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Sententia libri Ethicorum" [Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics], 1271)
"A scrap of knowledge about sublime things is worth more than any amount about trivialities." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
"Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
"Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
"Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
"Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
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