The ultimate meaning of the active life is to make possible the happiness of contemplation. Josef Pieper More Quotes by Josef Pieper More Quotes From Josef Pieper ...the intemperately wrathful man is less obnoxious than the intemperately lustful one, while the immoderate pleasure-seeker, intent on dissimulation and camouflage, is unable to give or take a straight look in the eye. Josef Pieper eyegivingmen The happy life does not mean loving what we possess, but possessing what we love." Possession of the beloved, St. Thomas holds, takes place in an act of cognition, in seeing, in intuition, in contemplation. Josef Pieper intuitionmeanhappy-life [T]o know means to reach the reality of existing things[.] Josef Pieper know-memeanreality ... each gratification points to the ultimate one, and that all happiness has some connection with eternal beatitude. Some connection, if only this: that every fulfillment this side of Heaven instantly reveals its inadequacy. It is immediately evident that such satisfactions are not enough; they are not what we have really sought; they cannot really satisfy us at all. Josef Pieper connectionssatisfactionheaven The common element in all the special forms of contemplation is the loving, yearning, affirming bent toward that happiness which is the same as God Himself, and which is the aim and purpose of all that happens in the world. Josef Pieper elementspurposespecial The "supreme good" and its attainment -- that is happiness. And joy is: response to happiness. Josef Pieper attainmentresponsejoy Now the code of life of the High Middle Ages said something entirely opposite to this: that it was precisely lack of leisure, an inability to be at leisure, that went together with idleness; that the restlessness of work-for-work's sake arose from nothing other than idleness. There is a curious connection in the fact that the restlessness of a self-destructive work-fanatacism should take its rise from the absence of a will to accomplish something. Josef Pieper selfageopposites The delight we take in our senses is an implicit desire to know the ultimate reason for things, the highest cause. The desire for wisdom that philosophy etymologically is is a desire for the highest or divine causes. Philosophy culminates in theology. All other knowledge contains the seeds of contemplation of the divine. Josef Pieper causesdesirephilosophy Beauty, however, must here be understood in its original meaning: as the glow of the true and the good irradiating from every ordered state of being, and not in the patent significance of immediate sensual appeal. Josef Pieper patentsstatessensual Contemplation does not ignore the 'historical Gethsemane', does not ignore the mystery of evil, guilt and its bloody atonement. The happiness of contemplation is a true happiness, indeed the supreme happiness; but it is founded upon sorrow. Josef Pieper historicalsorrowevil He who knows does not feel wonder. It could not be said that God experiences wonder, for God knows in the most absolute and perfect way. Josef Pieper perfectdoeway Happiness is essentially a gift; we are not the forgers of our own felicity. Josef Pieper felicity All just order in the world is based on this, that man give man what is his due. Josef Pieper givingmenorder The brave man uses wrath for his own act, above all in attack, 'for it is peculiar to wrath to pounce upon evil. Thus fortitude and wrath work directly upon each other. Josef Pieper wrathevilmen The essence of leisure is not to assure that we may function smoothly but rather to assure that we, embedded in our social function, are enabled to remain fully human. Josef Pieper leisureessencemay Justice is a habit (habitus), whereby a man renders to each one his due with constant and perpetual will. Josef Pieper habitjusticemen Only the silent hear and those who do not remain silent do not hear. Josef Pieper christian-inspirationalinspirationfaith Happiness,... even the smallest happiness, is like a step out of Time, and the greatest happiness is sharing in Eternity. Josef Pieper smallesteternitysteps To celebrate a festival means: to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as a whole. Josef Pieper specialmeanworld To be conscious of gratitude is to acknowledge a gift. Josef Pieper gratitudegratefulconscious
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