Thomas Aquinas
God alone is good essentially. For everything is called good according to its perfection … This triple perfection belongs to no creature by its own essence; it belongs to God only, in Whom alone essence is existence … Hence it is manifest that God alone has every kind of perfection by His own essence; therefore He Himself alone is good essentially.
Source details
1274 · Summa Theologica I, q. 6, a. 3 — that God is good by His own essence (a reply to the Euthyphro dilemma)
Checked word-for-word against Summa Theologica · 2026-07-18