"Prostitution in towns is like the sewer in a palace; take away the sewers and the palace becomes an impure and stinking place."
— Thomas Aquinas

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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This quote, frequently attributed to Aquinas, is actually a paraphrase of a passage (itself an elaborate paraphrase of Augustine) by Ptolemy of Lucca in his continuation of an unfinished work by Aquinas. The passage from Ptolemy reads: "Thus, Augustine says that a whore acts in the world as the bilge in a ship or the sewer in a palace: 'Remove the sewer, and you will fill the palace with a stench.' Similarly, concerning the bilge, he says: 'Take away whores from the world, and you will fill it w