Of course the world of work begins to become - threatens to become - our only world, to the exclusion of all else. The demands of the working world grow ever more total, grasping ever more completely the whole of human existence.
Josef PieperRead
The common element in all the special forms of contemplation is the loving, yearning, affirming bent toward that happiness which is the same as God Himself, and which is the aim and purpose of all that happens in the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that true happiness is intertwined with a divine connection and is the ultimate goal of human existence.
Josef Pieper emphasizes that happiness is not just a transient feeling but a profound state of being that is connected to the divine. He suggests that all contemplation and special forms of thought are ultimately aimed at reaching this state of happiness, which he equates with God. This highlights the notion that life's purpose and events are driven by a yearning for this true and fulfilling happiness.
Themes
HappinessDivineContemplationPurposeLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the meaning of life, one could use this quote to illustrate how happiness connects us to something greater.
More from Josef Pieper
All quotes βBeing precedes Truth, and ... Truth precedes the Good.
Josef PieperRead
Repose, leisure, peace, belong among the elements of happiness. If we have not escaped from harried rush, from mad pursuit, from unrest, from the necessity of care, we are not happy. And what of contemplation? Its very premise is freedom from the fetters of workaday busyness. Moreover, it itself actualizes this freedom by virtue of being intuition.
Josef PieperRead
The eye of perfected friendship with God is aware of deeper dimensions of reality, to which the eyes of the average man and the average Christian are not yet opened.
Josef PieperRead
The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything and everyone; everything is "in him"; nothing can happen to him. The same may also be said for the contemplative person; he needs himself alone; he lacks nothing.
Josef PieperRead
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.
Josef PieperRead
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