Category: Philosophy

Choices Make Habits

St. Thomas, as usual, is the apostle of common sense. Virtue, like reason and language, is in us by nature potentially—we are designed for it—but since the actualization of this potentiality depends on our free…

Today’s One-Liner (#305)

Whoever, on the other hand, frees himself of all attachment to temporal goods attains to magnanimity, liberty of spirit, clarity of reason, deep rest, peaceful confidence in God, true homage of God, and genuine submission…

Today’s One-Liner (#292)

The four cardinal natural virtues are fertilizer for the spiritual soil in which the three theological virtues are to grow.  –Peter Kreeft, Practical Theology: Spiritual Direction from Saint Thomas Aquinas, 113

Come Out Swinging

[Simone] Weil’s critique of Marx is impressive in its sweep, its remorseless logic, and its passion, recalling the contemporary writing of Berdiaev.  –David McLellan/ Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil, 77

Today’s One-Liner (#289)

While I thought that there was some element of madness in her projects, I recall that after having seen her I was even more convinced than before that she was some sort of saint.  –Simone…

Readiness Is All

Every time I re-read a book of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, or Aquinas, I shake my head and wonder why I had not seen that before. The answer is most likely that I was not ready…

Virtue’s Greatness

Fortitude appears to excel among the virtues. Virtue is concerned with things difficult and good. But fortitude is concerned with difficulty; hence it is the greatest of the virtues. To this we must reply: the…

Simplify!

Simplify your life by throwing out all the things you have that you don’t need, all that’s not virtuous, useful, or pleasant. Don’t do anything for any other reason, e.g., because “everybody’s doing it” or…