Of all the natural virtues these four are cardinal, i.e., the hinges (cardes) on which all other virtues turn, the foundations on which all the other virtues are built.
Manifests a good person, a good character, a good habit, and also because good deeds gradually form good habits, good character, good persons.
All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely).
[F]or a thing to be evil, one single defect suffices, whereas for it to be good . . . it is not enough for it to be good in one point only, it must be good in every respect. . . .
Why Won’t We Be Bored in Heaven? Because we are with God, and God is infinite. We never come to the end of exploring Him. He is new every day. Because we are with God, and God is eternal. Time does no...
We cannot hate truth in general, all truth, as we cannot hate food in general, all food. But we can hate a particular truth even though it is good for us, as we can hate a particular food even though...
The eye of the poet sees less clearly, but sees farther than the eye of the scientist.
The Church also seems to be in the social service business, the counseling business, the fundraising business, the daycare business-dozens of the same worthy businesses the secular world is also in. W...
Suppose the god, the goal of progress, is changing. Then progress becomes impossible. How could we progress toward a goal that keeps receding? How could a runner make progress toward a finish line if...
Socrates: So was I.Bertha: Are you saying you're as great as him, then?Socrates: No, no, on the contrary, I'm assuming just the opposite!
Principles are not conclusions but starting points, principia. When
One of Beethoven’s biographers listed the three greatest and hardest human tasks as heroism, childbirth, and creative work. For
Not all prayer is in words, because not all conversation is in words.
It’s just as dangerous and just as heretical to under—do as to over—do what Scripture says.
It is tempting to remain in the comfortable theater of the imagination instead of the real world, to fall in love with the idea of becoming a saint and loving God and neighbor instead of doing the act...
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.
His purpose was not just to make us safe but to make us saints.
God judges justly. All who sinned without [knowing] the [Mosaic] law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law (Rom 2:12). Even pagans show that...
Furthermore, the most popular modern answer to the question of what it means to be a good person is to be kind. Do not make other people suffer. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s O.K. By this standard,...
Christ is the Word of God, the answer of God. All the words of the prophets, philosophers, and poets are echoes of this Word. In