Quotes About Perfection

Observe this simple counsel of perfection: Forsake all, and you shall find all. Renounce desire, and you shall find peace. Give this due thought, and when you have put it into practice, you will understand all things.

If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking. We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings.

Cada día debemos renovar nuestro propósito y excitarnos a mayor fervor, como si hoy fuese el primer día de nuestra conversión, y decir: Señor, Dios mío, ayúdame en mi buen intento y en tu santo servicio, y dame gracia para que comience hoy perfectamente, porque no es nada cuanto hice hasta aquí. I Par. 14, 11

The fewer there are who follow the way to perfection, the harder that way is to find

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

One will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are.

Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing.

The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God.

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.

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.

There would not be a perfect likeness of God in the universe if all things were of one grade of being.

Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.

Faith presupposes natural knowledge, even as grace presupposes nature, and perfection supposes something that can be perfected.

I answer that, Every being, as being, is good. For all being, as being, has actuality and is in some way perfect; since every act implies some sort of perfection; and perfection implies desirability and goodness, as is clear from A[1]. Hence it follows that every being as such is good.

Happiness itself, being a perfection of the soul, is a good inherent in the soul: but that in which happiness consists, or the object that makes one happy, is something outside the soul.

But the perfection of divine goodness is found in one simple thing

Reply to Objection 3: As man is more perfect than other animals, he has more intrinsic operations than other animals, because his perfection is something composite. Hence the angels, who are more perfect and more simple, have fewer intrinsic operations than man, for they have no imagination, or feeling, or the like. In God there exists only one real operation---that is, His essence

The mind stands upright when it is humbly submitted to God. For each thing exists to a higher and more noble state to the extent it stands firm in what perfects it more.

Therefore, as the divine wisdom is the cause of the distinction of things for the sake of the perfection of the universe, so it is the cause of inequality. For the universe would not be perfect if only one grade of goodness were found in things.

To sin is to fall short of a perfect action; hence to be able to sin is to be able to fall short in action, which is repugnant to omnipotence.

Reply to Objection 3: The universe, the present creation being supposed, cannot be better, on account of the most beautiful order given to things by God; in which the good of the universe consists. For if any one thing were bettered, the proportion of order would be destroyed; as if one string were stretched more than it ought to be, the melody of the harp would be destroyed.