Modern religious teaching have little or nothing to say about the place of prudence in life or in the hierarchy of virtues.

... the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul.

Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture and ourselves.

Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.

Wonder is defined by Thomas [Aquinas] in the Summa Theologiae [I-II, Q. 32, a. 8], as the desiderium sciendi, the desire for knowledge, active longing to know.

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.

Being precedes Truth, and ... Truth precedes the Good.

All just order in the world is based on this, that man give man what is his due.

[T]o know means to reach the reality of existing things[.]

The "supreme good" and its attainment -- that is happiness. And joy is: response to happiness.

The ultimate meaning of the active life is to make possible the happiness of contemplation.

The real winners I've met in life weren't necessarily skilled or perfect. They just had the tenacity to never, ever give up.

Mind-power takes you to the mountaintop. Heart-power takes you the stars. Soul-power takes you to the edge of the universe.

The availability of choice is the downfall of mankind.

Real freedom must include economic security.

The last Bollywood movie I watched was 3 Idiots that featured Aamir Khan in it. It was impressive!

The longer you live in New Orleans, the more unfit you become to live anywhere else.

Most people can't handle boredom. That means they can't stay on one thing until they get good at it. And they wonder why they're unhappy.

I love traveling and I love seeing new places and meeting new people, but at the same time, it takes a certain amount of emotional strength to gel with that, at least for me.

Just try to keep the heart turned outward, as well as having moments inward.

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.