Q0326

Thomas Aquinas

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided.
Thinker Thomas Aquinas
School Scholasticism
Source Summa Theologiae I-II, q.94, a.2
Theme Power
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Summa Theologiae I-II, q.94, a.2, within the tradition of Scholasticism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of power, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Thomas Aquinas's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0326

MLA: Thomas Aquinas. “Good is to be done and pursued, and….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0326.

Chicago: Thomas Aquinas. “Good is to be done and pursued, and….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0326.

Same thinker

More from Thomas Aquinas

  1. Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.
  2. Prudence is right reason applied to action.
  3. Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.

All quotations by Thomas Aquinas

Same theme

More on power

  1. For knowledge itself is power.
  2. When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs change, preparations must change.
  3. During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War.
  4. The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
  5. Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.

Browse the power theme