Inspirational Quotes by Peter Kreeft

“It hardly ever attaches to any other sin except one, and is never heard from any organized group of people except one.”

“We cannot hate truth in general, all truth, as we cannot hate food in general, all food. But we can hate a particular truth even though it is good for us, as we can hate a particular food even though it is good for us:”

“the contemplative life not only does not exclude, but requires, the active life.”

“of all the natural virtues these four are “cardinal,” i.e., the hinges (“cardes”) on which all other virtues turn, the foundations on which all the other virtues are built.”

“It is faith (trust) that affirms that the light, the ultimate truth, is perfect love. (That’s because there is only one God, and He is both.) Therefore faith is the key to this absolute love of truth.”

“ora et labora, prayer and work.”

“murder and adultery are great crimes.”

“But a sneer can be a greater crime than a murder subjectively, for a sneer means “You are beneath contempt, you are sub-human, you are worthless scum, you are not even worth taking the trouble and time to kill”, while a murder may mean “You are important and formidable and you are my enemy, and thus I must kill you.” That can be a compliment, compared to a sneer.”

“(For instance, it is a “hate crime” to quote certain politically incorrect verses from the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in any public arena.)”

“Presumption and despair are opposite deadly sins. We hear a lot about despair, and the need for hope; but what is presumption?”

“There is little passion for anything except pleasure and comfort and security. Indeed, passion is confused with fanaticism.”

“St. Thomas thus detects a primary source of presumption in seeking genuinely good things, like human happiness on earth, as if we did not need divine grace to attain them; and in the hope that we can obtain God’s pardon and mercy without our confessing and repenting of sin.”

“Paradoxically, sloth reigns most in our technologically busy world where leisure has been abolished and life has been programmed and scheduled down to the last detail.”

“a God without wrath saves a man without sin by mercy without judgment for a Heaven without a Hell through a Christ without a cross.”

“If the unhappiness of the wicked angels comes at length to an end, the happiness of the good will also come to an end, which is inadmissible.”

“that habituation is a slow, imperceptible sinking, whose point of no return is not clearly marked.”

“Many saints were made out of passionate sinners—the angry, the hating, the lustful, the cynical; but none were ever made out of the slothful.”

“Even if it were within her legal right and authority, it would harm more than help. It might be argued that it is like capital punishment today: the state has the right to use it if necessary, but since it is no longer necessary, it would do more public harm than good in the current war against the culture of death.”

“The meaning of life is to become a saint.”

“Each practical moral virtue has two opposed vices, a “too much” and a “too little” (e.g., cowardice and foolhardiness, or insensitivity and self-indulgence). Theoretical truth also usually contrasts with two opposite errors, e.g., angelism vs. animalism regarding human nature, or deism vs. pantheism in theology, or the denial of free will vs. the denial of predestination. And so too here, with the sacraments. On the one hand, superstition ascribes supernatural powers to the natural things themselves, not as instruments; and on the other hand, in the typically Muslim Ash’arite theology, God does everything Himself and acts not by using natural things as active instruments but only as accidental occasions. Thus the technical term “occasionalism”. In Catholic theology, grace is, on the one hand, absolutely sovereign and also, on the other hand, it uses, perfects, and respects nature. Thus divine grace comes to us through the sacraments in a way which perfects their natural matter in giving it the power to actually cause the increase of grace in souls. It”