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
Being precedes Truth, and ... Truth precedes the Good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of being informs what is true, and truth forms the basis of goodness.
This quote by Josef Pieper suggests a foundational relationship between existence, truth, and morality. It implies that our understanding of what it means to exist ('being') shapes our perception of truth, and that this truth is essential for discerning what is good. In essence, we must first understand the nature of being before we can seek truth, and only with truth can we define or achieve goodness in our lives and actions.
Themes
BeingTruthGoodnessPhilosophyMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a philosophy class to discuss the relationship between existence and ethics.
More from Josef Pieper
All quotes →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 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.
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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