Inspirational Quotes by Peter Kreeft
“Most of us are really good at knowing when we are in the expressing role. As St. Teresa of Ávila said, “Many people are good at talking but bad at understanding.” That’s because most of us always want to be in the expressing role. We feel like our perspective or opinion is vital to the conversation, more so than the other person’s, and so the motivation is to make sure that our side is understood.”
“The beauty and the hope here is that who we are cannot be diminished by who we think we are.”
“Somewhere along the way you may have developed a script for perfectionism, one that says you are not doing enough, are not good enough, or don’t work hard enough. This script perpetuates the doing mode, as it creates a near-constant problem to be solved. If this is true for you at some level, you are living in a perpetual state of escaping the hawk ready to swoop in on you at any moment. This mind-set reduces your creativity, closes off your perspective from the big picture, and prevents you from finding solutions to your actual, solvable problems with any outside-the-box thinking.”
“Behind Boromir's testimony lurks something else that our modern world is desperately in need of: a sense that we live in a meaningful universe where nothing is accidental and where an overruling providence moves things forward in accordance with a higher plan. This promises as well that history is not merely a succession of unrelated events ("one darn thing after another"), but that it too is imbued with meaning, purpose, and direction. And if both the universe and history are meaningful, then perhaps we are as well.”
“When you ask them what’s wrong with the world, they never say there is not enough religion. They say there is not enough peace, prosperity, security, comfort, health care, or environmental responsibility. In other words, not enough human control over nature and human nature.”
“Pouco antes da licenciatura, dei-me conta de que não sabia se Scott desejava ou não ter uma família numerosa. Eu sempre desejara ter pelo menos quatro ou cinco filhos. Por isso, como por acaso, puxei o tema: – Você quer ter filhos, não quer? – Bom, não filhos demais. Ah, não! – pensei eu – Agora acontece que é um partidário do “crescimento zero” da população! Procurando manter o tom indiferente, perguntei-lhe: – Quantos seriam demais? – Não sei... – disse ele – Acho que nos devemos limitar a uns cinco ou seis. Mal podia acreditar no que ouvia. – Pois é, temos que ser moderados – disse eu, com um sorriso.”
“Jesus é a única Pessoa a quem você tem de prestar contas. Quando você tem Jesus diante de si, o que é que consegue lhe dizer com a consciência tranquila?”
“Gimli’s story is different. Beginning from a similarly prideful starting point, the process of change is long, slow, and far from smooth. But it is a path walked with courage. From Dwarf-only upringing to cross-cultural bridge-builder, and from obstinate and stubborn to humbly teachable, his is a journey that is completely alien to his people. Seen in this light, engaging and honouring the distrusted and unknown is in itself an act of courage, and undergoing an existential journey of self-discovery requires strength of character. Gimli never becomes less a dwarf—strength and courage are still at the heart of all he does—but he reapplies those traits in a wiser way.”
“People’s experience of suffering is very much relative to their own lives. At the end of the day, every person has a choice to make about which path to take when confronted with suffering: avoidance or acceptance. Every difficulty you encounter comes with this choice.”
“Creativity is an essential element in problem solving, but it doesn’t work very well when anxiety is increasing”
“Not all prayer is in words, because not all conversation is in words.”
― Peter Kreeft ,
from Prayer for Beginners
“His purpose was not just to make us safe but to make us saints.”
― Peter Kreeft ,
from Prayer for Beginners
“His glory is to be our concern; our glory is His concern. That is what love is: a holy Exchange.”
― Peter Kreeft ,
from Jesus-Shock
“Not all who listen, believe. If you call the Gospel a crazy fairy tale, a far-too-good-to-be-true myth, an insane extension of wishful thinking, or even a blasphemous lie, I will respect you and argue with you. But if you call it a platitude, I can only pity you, for that means you have never listened to it.”
― Peter Kreeft ,
from Jesus-Shock
“Christ changed every human being he ever met. In fact, He changed history, splitting it open like a coconut and inserting eternity into the split between B.C. and A.D. If anyone claims to have met Him without being changed, he has not met Him at all. When you touch Him, you touch lightning. Socrates is puzzled because he is looking for the burn marks.”
― Peter Kreeft ,
from Jesus-Shock
“Physical emotions are moved by chemicals, nerve endings, weather, digestion, hormones, and a thousand other things in the body or the physical world. Animals can’t love without physical emotion. Angels can’t love with physical emotion. We can love with or without physical emotion.”
“2. Greed, or acquisitive desire.”
“8. Charity (agape), or willing the good of the other. Since this love comes from the will rather than the feelings, and since angels have wills, angels have this love.”
“Humans are the lowest (least intelligent) of spirits and the highest (most intelligent) of animals. We are rational animals, incarnate minds, the smartest of animals and the stupidest of spirits:”
Group of Brands
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Peter John Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College, and author of numerous books as well as a popular writer on Christian theology, and specifically Roman Catholic apologetics. He also formulated together with Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, "Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God".
Kreeft took his A.B. at Calvin College (1959), and an M.A. at Fordham University (1961). In the same university he completed his doctoral studies in 1965. He briefly did post graduate studies at Yale University. He joined the Philosophy faculty of the Department of Philosophy of Boston College in 1965. In 1994 he was a signer of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.