In order for man to achieve beatitude it was necessary therefore that God should become man to take away the sin of the human race.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Against the Gentiles, Bk IV, ch. 54.

The best government of a society (multitudo) is one that is ruled by one person. This is clear from the end of government which is peace. Peaceful unity among his subjects is the end of a ruler, and one ruler, rather than many rulers, is a more proximate cause of unity.

St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Against the Gentiles, Bk. IV, ch. 76.

Now human reason is related to the knowledge of the truth of faith…in such a way that reason can attain likenesses of it that are true but not sufficient to comprehend the truth conclusively or as known in itself.

St. Thomas Aquinuas, The Summa Against the Gentiles, Bk 1., ch. 8.

"Now fraud, that eats away at every conscience, is practiced by a man against another who trusts in him, or one who has no trust. This latter way seems only to cut off the bond of love that nature forges…But in the former way of fraud, not only the love that nature forges is forgotten, but added love that builds a special trust;

thus, in the tightest circle, where there is the universe’s center, seat of Dis, all traitors are consumed eternally."

Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XI.

Aquinas’ list of virtues does not altogether tally with Aristotle’s, though he works hard to Christianize some of the more pagan characters who figure in Ethics. Aristotle’s ideal man is great-souled, that is to say, he is a highly superior being who is very conscious of his own superiority to others. How can this be reconciled with the Christian virtue of humility? By a remarkable piece of intellectual legerdemain, Aquinas makes magnanimity not only compatible with humility but part of the very same virtue. There is a virtue, he says, that is the moderation of ambition, a virtue based on on a just appreciation of one’s own gifts and defects. Humility is the aspect that ensures that one’s ambitions are based on a just assessment of one’s defects, magnanimity is the aspect that ensures that they are based on a just assessment of one’s gifts.

Anthony Kenny, Medieval Philosophy, Vol 2., 73.

While writing the First Part of the Summa St Thomas began a political treatise, On Kingship, laying down principles for the guidance of secular governments in a way that leaves no doubt that kings are subject to priests and that the pope enjoys a secular as well as a spiritual supremacy.

Anthony Kenny, Medieval Philosophy, Vol. 2, 70.

A typical medieval university consisted of four faculties: the universal undergraduate faculty of arts, and the three higher faculties, linked to professions, of theology, law, and medicine.

Anthony Kenny, Medieval Philosophy, Vol. 2, 55.

The university is, in essentials, a thirteenth-century innovation, if by ‘university’ we mean a corporation of people engaged professionally, full-time, in the teaching and expansion of a corpus of knowledge in various subjects, handing it on to their pupils, with an agreed syllabus, agreed methods of teaching, and agreed professional standards. Universities and parliaments came into existence at roughly the same time, and have proved themselves the most long-lived of all medieval inventions.

Anthony Kenny, Medieval Philosophy, Vol. 2, 55.

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month."

"If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness."

"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs."

"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!"

"Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!"

"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."

– Theodore Roosevelt

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

– Theodore Roosevelt

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Success, the real success, does not depend upon the position you hold but upon how you carry yourself in that position.

– Theodore Roosevelt

The Soul once seen to be thus precious, thus divine; you may hold the faith that by its possession you are already nearing God; in the strength of his power make upwards towards him.

Plotinus, Enneads, V.I

To support this, [Cicero] denies foreknowledge and thus, in seeking to make men free, he makes them irreverent.

St. Augustine, City of God, book V, ch. 9.

How then can we speak of the divine names? How can we do this if the Transcendent surpasses all discourse and all knowledge, if it abides beyond all reach of mind and of being, if it encompasses and circumscribes, embraces and anticipates all things while itself eluding their grasp and escaping form any perception, imagination, opinion, name, discourse, apprehension, or understanding? How can we enter upon this undertaking if the Godhead is superior to being and is unspeakable and unnameable?

Dionysius, The Divine Names, 1.5

Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt.

Augustine, Confessions, book X, ch 29.

What art thou, then, Lord God, than whom nothing greater can be conceived?

Anselm, Proslogium

Lastly fortune when apparently happy leads men astray by her blandishments, wandering from the true good.

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, II.vii

My error was my god.

Augustine, Confessions, IV.vii.12

A warrior will sooner die than live a life of shame.

Beowulf, 2890