Kreeft Quotes

Moral relativism says morality is relative, not absolute, I want to show moral relativism, in its popular form, is logically incoherent. — Peter Kreeft

But God loves men more than angels in intensity, because He became one of us, — Peter Kreeft

Whoever marries the spirit of the times must soon become a widower. — Peter Kreeft

The meaning of life is to become a saint. — Peter Kreeft

Most people believe you have to have some moral absolutes if you want to hold back chaos. — Peter Kreeft

St. Thomas would have agreed with Leon Bloy, who often wrote that in the end there is only one tragedy in life: not to have been a saint. — Peter Kreeft

Faith and hope bring us through time but leave us at the doorstep of eternity. Only love goes with us inside. — Peter Kreeft

No emotion, merely as an emotion, is a sin, because we cannot directly control the arising of an emotion in our soul. — Peter Kreeft

Second, the origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature's freely choosing sin and selfishness. — Peter Kreeft

The Inquisition confused sin with sinners and judged both. Modern Americans make the same mistake but judge neither. — Peter Kreeft

We need to have the mind of a conservative and the heart of a liberal. — Peter Kreeft

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! — Peter Kreeft

Not all Tolkien haters are Orcs, but all Orcs are Tolkien haters. — Peter Kreeft

Only when there is virtue in souls can there be peace and happiness in society. — Peter Kreeft

Dulia is like a high but finite number; hyperdulia is like the highest number out of a finite number of finite numbers; latria is like infinity. — Peter Kreeft

his total refusal to be tempted by the prostitute — Peter Kreeft

The Church has always had a conservative head and a liberal heart, and the world has never understood her, just as it never understood Christ. — Peter Kreeft

I think most people who call themselves relativists are not, in practice. — Peter Kreeft

is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He — Peter Kreeft

Humility is not an exaggeratedly low opinion of yourself. Humility is self-forgetfulness. — Peter Kreeft

A pure heart means a single heart, a heart in which only one desire lives: love. — Peter Kreeft

Control language and you control thought; control thought and you control action; control action and you control the world. — Peter Kreeft

Without that freedom to sin there is also no freedom to love. — Peter Kreeft

We can't believe what we believe to be untrue, and we can't love what we believe to be unreal. — Peter Kreeft

Other religions are stories of man's search for God. The Bible is the story of God's search for man. — Peter Kreeft

God loves us more than we love Him. — Peter Kreeft

Principles without facts are empty, but facts without principles are blind. — Peter Kreeft

A woman has a responsibility and a privilege that a man doesn't have of given birth to another human being. — Peter Kreeft

Stand in the divine rain, and seeds of wisdom will grow in your soul. — Peter Kreeft

Not all prayer is in words, because not all conversation is in words. — Peter Kreeft

Joy is not a feeling in us. Joy does not enter into us. We enter into joy: "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Mt 25:21). — Peter Kreeft

We sin because we see sin as a bargain. We unconsciously calculate that it's worth it, that it pays. — Peter Kreeft

Feelings come to us, passively; love comes from us, actively, by our free choice. — Peter Kreeft

Of course we should use all our powers, of mind and will and imagination, but not trust in them, for that is trusting in ourselves. — Peter Kreeft

we forgive those who trespass — Peter Kreeft

We can and should investigate and learn from the wisdom in other religions. — Peter Kreeft

Now I see that God prefers to work through intermediaries - Mary and the saints ... He wants us to pray through Mary and not only directly. — Peter Kreeft

Trying to fill the God-sized hole in our hearts with things other than God is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon with marbles. — Peter Kreeft

If anyone doubts its infallible conclusion, he infallibly shows that he has never really performed the experiment. — Peter Kreeft

If we turn to the divine Conductor and follow the wise and loving baton that is His will, His Word, then the music of our life will be a symphony. — Peter Kreeft

I guarantee you that after you die you will not say 'I spent too much time praying; I wish I had watched more TV instead. — Peter Kreeft

not human nature with perfect preternatural gifts such as it was in unfallen Adam. — Peter Kreeft

One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth. — Peter Kreeft

We are fallen fools, most of our philosophy is not "the proper use of human reason" but the improper use of human reason. — Peter Kreeft

To worship a crocodile is better to worship yourself. — Peter Kreeft

Delight is a subjective reason for praying, but it is a valid one. — Peter Kreeft

Live a life of love, especially the love of God, and observe the joy of it. Live a life of lovelessness and observe the joylessness of it. — Peter Kreeft

But that is all prayer requires: faith, hope, and love. Great holiness, or piety, or sanctity are not required. Prayer is a road to holiness. — Peter Kreeft

Human fathers give human life, animal fathers give animal life, God the Father gives divine life. It's called grace. — Peter Kreeft

Philosophy says truth, literature shows truth. — Peter Kreeft

Only saints can save the world. And only our own sins can stop us from being saints. — Peter Kreeft

It is possible to love one's friend for another reason than God, whereas God is the only reason for loving one's enemy. — Peter Kreeft

Our destiny is to be so intimately united with God that, as the mystics say, we not only see God's face but also see with God's face. — Peter Kreeft

Sin has made us stupid, so that we can only learn the hard way. — Peter Kreeft

Violence is spiritual junk food, and boredom is spiritual anorexia. — Peter Kreeft

Bad times make good people, as mountainous pressures make diamonds or as fire tempers steel. — Peter Kreeft

Life is hard, but death is even harder. — Peter Kreeft

For everything naturally desires good, — Peter Kreeft

In essentials, unity; in inessentials, diversity; in all things, charity. — Peter Kreeft

Faith is not like bottled water but like rain. Its destiny is not just to be kept and held but to make something visible grow. — Peter Kreeft

If you truly love God and His will, then doing what you will, will, in fact, be doing what God wills. — Peter Kreeft

If you are truly confident about something, you welcome honest questions about it. — Peter Kreeft

The key to faith is love. We believe only if we love. Trust is the middle term; only if we love, do we trust; and only if we trust, do we believe. — Peter Kreeft

Do you know any better way to make saints than to be one yourself? — Peter Kreeft

The single most important piece of advice about prayer is one word: Begin! — Peter Kreeft

war between paralyzed telepaths. — Peter Kreeft

[T]o scorn the dictate of reason is to scorn the commandment of God (I-II,19,5). — Peter Kreeft

The solution to our suffering is our suffering! — Peter Kreeft

In an age of relativism, orthodoxy is the only possible rebellion left — Peter Kreeft

Manifests a good person, a good character, a good habit, and also because good deeds gradually form good habits, good character, good persons. — Peter Kreeft

Ethics without virtue is an illusion. What is the highest purpose of ethics? It is to make a person good, that is virtuous. — Peter Kreeft

Why contraception is not only wrong but sacrilegious: — Peter Kreeft

He stoops down even into the spiritual nursery and carefully watches over spiritual infants like us. — Peter Kreeft

The only reason you are not yet a saint is because you do not wholly want to be one ... — Peter Kreeft

Presumption and despair are opposite deadly sins. We hear a lot about despair, and the need for hope; but what is presumption? — Peter Kreeft

Life is always fatal. No one gets out of it alive — Peter Kreeft

Even David Hume, one of history most famous skeptics, said it's just barely possible that God exists. — Peter Kreeft

Feelings, like waves, look more substantial than they are. — Peter Kreeft

To many moderns, [love] is something that is only a part of us rather than something of which we are a part. — Peter Kreeft

In a sense "all the way to Heaven is Heaven" (St. Catherine). — Peter Kreeft

Love is the binding force on every level of existence. — Peter Kreeft

You have an evil twin who is always with you. He is called your ego. — Peter Kreeft

The quantity comes from the efficient cause but the quality comes from the formal cause. — Peter Kreeft

The eye of the poet sees less clearly, but sees farther than the eye of the scientist. — Peter Kreeft

The flood of love will fill all the containers to the fullest, but some containers will be larger than others. — Peter Kreeft

Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons. — Peter Kreeft

When God changed someone's name in Scripture, He changed their destiny: Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter. — Peter Kreeft

God's wraith is really only the face of love refused. — Peter Kreeft

Gratitude is the seedbed of joy. — Peter Kreeft

2. Greed, or acquisitive desire. — Peter Kreeft

when a subject corrects his prelate, he ought to do so in a becoming manner, not with impudence and harshness but with gentleness and respect. . . . — Peter Kreeft

In an age that has thrown off all tradition, the only rebellion possible is orthodoxy. — Peter Kreeft

All human beings have a right to life. Our unborn children are members of the human race. They're human beings, so they have a right to life. — Peter Kreeft

It's like a government agency that really works. — Peter Kreeft

Condoms are about as effective against AIDS as a twenty-four-chamber gun instead of a six-chamber gun when playing Russian roulette. — Peter Kreeft

We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love. — Peter Kreeft

When feminists become saints, we will become their pupils. — Peter Kreeft

Only God is to be loved for His own sake. Everything else is to be loved for God's sake. — Peter Kreeft

Disbelief is a sin, but honest unbelief is not. — Peter Kreeft

The good Jew, like the good Christian, sees behind the law to the Lawgiver, whose will is perfect love. — Peter Kreeft