Beauty

Every so often St. Thomas says something really simple but beautiful in the middle of some extended philosophical discourse. This is one of the things about him that I like most; he’s not just a dry, dusty academic, he’s filled with the full force of life. Here's an example:

When we speak metaphorically of a meadow as smiling we only mean that it shows at its best when it flowers, just as people show at their best when they smile.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, summa theologiae I.13.6