Aquinas subscribes to what Augustine says about evil and vice. He believes that all is good, and that God made everything good, and that the source of evil does not come from God, but from the defect of action. He also says that God is the source of evil in punishment, but not from the evil of fault. In other words, every man that is born is good,a nd stays good, until that man acts in an evil way.

Aquinas' concept of sin is like Augustine's as "a word, deed, or desire, contrary to God's eternal law." There are two kinds of sin to Aquinas, a sin in doing something wrong ("a sin of commission"), and in not doing what we ought to do ("a sin of omission".)

Aquinas distinguishes between "natural right", and "positive right". Capitol punishment, in Aquinas's eyes, is justifiable and even commendable, because "if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good."

Suicide on the other hand, Aquinas says is a mortal sin, and is morally wrong "for three reasons": because it violates the natural law of self-preservation, because it represents an injury to the community of which each of us is a part, and because it negates the power of life and death that "belongs to God alone."

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