Skip to content

Wonder is defined by Thomas [Aquinas] in the Summa Theologiae [I-II, Q. 32, a. 8], as the desiderium sciendi, the desire for knowledge, active longing to know.

— Josef Pieper Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948)

Another quote →

More quotes by Josef Pieper

All just order in the world is based on this, that man give man what is his due.

The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance (1965)

Worship itself is a given — or it does not exist at all.

Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948)

He who knows does not feel wonder. It could not be said that God experiences wonder, for God knows in the most absolute and perfect way.

Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948)

Since "the answers of the special sciences" do not reach "the horizon of total reality", they are given "without having to speak at the same time of 'God and the world.'

Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948)

It pertains to the very nature of a philosophical question that its answer will not be a "perfectly rounded truth" (as Parmenides said it), grasped in the hand like an apple plucked from a tree.

Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948)

All Josef Pieper quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Josef Pieper (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.