Josef Pieper
Overview
 
Josef Pieper (ˈpiːpɐ; May 4, 1904 – November 6, 1997) was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance; Leisure: the Basis of Culture; The Philosophical Act and Guide to Thomas Aquinas (published in England as Introduction to Thomas Aquinas).
Quotations

"Being precedes Truth, and ... Truth precedes the Good."

The Four Cardinal Virtues

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

The Four Cardinal Virtues

"The truth is the good of our knowing mind, upon which the mind fixes itself by nature; it is not granted to the mind to choose or not choose that good (truth!) on the basis, again, of knowledge. The finite mind does not comprehend itself so profoundly, and does not have such power over itself, that it follows its own light."

The Four Cardinal Virtues

"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."

The Four Cardinal Virtues

"Justice is a habit (habitus), whereby a man renders to each one his due with constant and perpetual will."

The Four Cardinal Virtues

 
x
OK