#beatitude

Here we must take account of one of St. Thomas's conceptual distinctions, which at first seems like unnecessary caviling. It is the distinction between "uncreated" and "created" happiness. We have here something which, while not at all obvious, is nevertheless fraught with consequences for our whole feeling about life. Namely, this: what does indeed make us happy is the infinite and uncreated richness of God; but participation in this, happiness itself, is entirely a "creatural" reality governed from within by our humanity; it is not something that descends overwhelmingly upon us from outside. That is, it is not only something that happens to us; we ourselves are intensely active participants in our own happiness. Beatitude - Thomas is saying - cannot possibly be conceived as a merely objective condition of sheer existence. It is not a mere quality, not pure passivity, not simply a feeling. It is something that takes place in the alert core of the mind... Happiness is an act and an activity of the soul. ↗

— Josef Pieper

#aquinas #beatitude #god #happiness #st-thomas

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. ↗

— George Eliot

#blessings #loquacity #remaining-silent #reticence #silence

Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#bless #blessed #blunders #forget #forgetful

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall take flack from both sides."- Unofficial UN Motto ↗

— Robert Lynn Asprin

#diplomacy #humor #motto #humor

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing ↗

— Camille Pissarro

#beauty

Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is. ↗

— Amy Carmichael

#life

Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another. ↗

— Thomas Hughes

#love

Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light. ↗

— Groucho Marx

#paraphrased #light