Saint Thomas Aquinas never said it, although it is all over the internet. Go here to read about the provenance of the quote. The internet gives fake quotes wings. Next time you come up on what looks like a fake quote, consider the following:
- Is the quote dated and sourced? Especially for a writer with a huge output like Saint Thomas, the lack of sourcing is a dead give away.
- Does the quote sound like the person it is attributed to? Raw ignorance of the person cited is ever an aid to a fake quote.
- Does the sentiment expressed sound like something you would see on a commercial inspirational card?
- Is the quote cute and/or pithy?
- Is it sourced to other people? A few minutes of internet research can reveal this.
- Is the person the quote is ascribed to a really big name? Fake quotes are almost never ascribed to obscure sources. The personage the quote is attributed to is chosen to lend support to the quote.
- Does the quote only start appearing at a date long after the person who it is ascribed to died? This quote goes back to the nineteenth century, but most fake internet quotes go back only to the 20th century, and usually the last few decades of the prior century.
- Is it concise? The age of the soundbite likes concise. Times past not so much.
- Is the quote freestanding with no context for the quote ever given?
- Is is endlessly repeated on the internet? Real quotes rarely are. Fake quotes are designed to pass swiftly from pen to pen and mouth to mouth.
“I didn’t say all the stuff I said on the internet” — Albert Einstein
I think I saw this quote attributed to Mother Teresa.
Aquinas can right tight sentences, but the whole idea of a Dominican saying “no explanation is possible” just doesn’t sound right. He recognized better than anyone just how far different types of knowledge could lead one to God, but the quote sounds a bit too much like someone walking away from a dispute.
The one that I’ve seen most often is, “preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary” attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. That one really bothers me. Like Francis would shy away from talking about the Faith.
The one that I’ve seen most often is, “preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary” attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. That one really bothers me. Like Francis would shy away from talking about the Faith.
Yep, another fake quote.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-misquoting-francis-of-assisi/
One of the hallmarks of a fake quote is that it seems too clever by half.
Aquinas is probably the absolute worst person to attribute this to considering that he wrote both explanations for the faithful (eg. Summa Theologica) and the disbelievers (eg. Summa Contra Gentiles.)