Happiness,... even the smallest happiness, is like a step out of Time, and the greatest happiness is sharing in Eternity. — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
Happiness is essentially a gift; we are not the forgers of our own felicity. — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
“The "supreme good" and its attainment -- that is happiness. And joy is: response to happiness.” — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
The ultimate meaning of the active life is to make possible the happiness of contemplation. — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
Happiness and joy are not the same. For what does the fervent craving for joy mean? It does not mean that we… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
Contemplation does not ignore the 'historical Gethsemane', does not ignore the mystery of evil, guilt and its bloody atonement. The happiness of… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
“... each gratification points to the ultimate one, and that all happiness has some connection with eternal beatitude. Some connection, if only… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
“Earthly contemplation means to the Christian, we have said, this above all: that behind all that we directly encounter the Face of… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
Repose, leisure, peace, belong among the elements of happiness. If we have not escaped from harried rush, from mad pursuit, from unrest,… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
“Here we must take account of one of St. Thomas's conceptual distinctions, which at first seems like unnecessary caviling. It is the… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
“Who among us has not suddenly looked into his child's face, in the midst of the toils and troubles of everyday life,… — Josef Pieper Copy Share Image
The delight we take in our senses is an implicit desire to know the ultimate reason for things, the highest cause. The desire for… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
“The vacancy left by absence of worship is filled by mere killing of time and by boredom, which is directly related to inability to… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
“Patience is not the indiscriminate acceptance of any sort of evil: "It is not the one who does not flee from evil who is… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
Contemplation does not ignore the 'historical Gethsemane', does not ignore the mystery of evil, guilt and its bloody atonement. The happiness of contemplation is… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
Justice is a habit (habitus), whereby a man renders to each one his due with constant and perpetual will. — Josef Pieper Copy Share
The happy life does not mean loving what we possess, but possessing what we love." Possession of the beloved, St. Thomas holds, takes place… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
The brave man uses wrath for his own act, above all in attack, 'for it is peculiar to wrath to pounce upon evil. Thus… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
What distinguishes - in both senses of that word - contemplation is rather this: it is a knowing which is inspired by love. "Without… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
Beauty, however, must here be understood in its original meaning: as the glow of the true and the good irradiating from every ordered state… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
If God really became incarnate, and if His Incarnation can with justice compel man to change his life,then we have no alternative but to… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
Only those are called liberal or free which are concerned with knowledge; those which are concerned with utilitarian ends... are called servile...The question is...… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
To celebrate a festival means: to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as… — Josef Pieper Copy Share
