Inspirational Quotes by Peter Kreeft

“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”

“Sacraments are that literal, that physical. Salvation is very physical. If the woman with the hemorrhage had touched the hem of St. Peter’s garment instead of Christ’s, her faith alone would not have healed her until it was joined to His body by her touch.—Unless God had willed to heal her that way, of course. God can work outside his sacraments, and often does. There”

“Scholastics called the “irascible” (averting) and “concupiscible” (attracting) emotions.”

“not human nature with perfect preternatural gifts such as it was in unfallen Adam.”

“Unworthy” does not mean “undeserving”, for we are all undeserving! It means “incapable of receiving.”

“since the foe of the human race was vanquished not as by God but as by man, as Pope Leo says”

“another principle demons use in spiritual warfare: multiple attacks, from many directions at once, or with many different weapons at once.”

“the species or nature with which we make our choices is fallen, sinful, selfish, and stupid; and we cannot by our own power attain the deepest and final end of our desires, union with God, eternal happiness. Thus,”

“Therefore the prayers we offer in the Mass for the world are far more powerful than the prayers we offer outside the Mass, even if the prayers we offer outside the Mass are the same prayers, and even if there are more of them, and even if they are offered for the same people, or for more people, and even if they are offered with the same faith and devotion on our part, or even with a little more faith and devotion on our part.”

“Of course we should use all our powers, of mind and will and imagination, but not trust in them, for that is trusting in ourselves.”

“our primary practical commandment in this life, to love our neighbors: it is not only for their and our good in time, but also preparation for our and their eternal blessedness.”

“The quantity comes from the efficient cause but the quality comes from the formal cause.”