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

... 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.

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

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.

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.

Life is finite, so focus on your purpose and do what is important.

If you cannot find a soul mate, at least find a foul mate

Another problem with the official definitions of terror is that it follows from them that the US is a leading terrorist state.

Success is the child of audacity.

One of the most striking features of karate is that it may be engaged in by anybody, young or old, strong or weak, male or female.

Beauty was empty as a gourd, vain as a parakeet. But it had power. It smelled of musk and oranges and made you close your eyes in a prayer.

Many a woman will pass for elegant in a ballroom, or even at a court drawing room, whose want of true breeding would become evident in a chosen company.

They think that nothing will happen because they have closed their doors, and they do not know that it is in the soul that things always happen, and that the world does not end at their housedoor.

I never go to the cinema. I can't stand sitting in the dark with strangers -- all of us obliged to share the same emotional experiences -- it's too intimate. I like to be emotional in private.

The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world