Josef Pieper, Happiness and Contemplation

"The delight we take in our senses is an implicit desire to know the ultimate reason for things, the highest cause. The desire for wisdom that philosophy etymologically is is a desire for the highest or divine causes. Philosophy culminates in theology. All other knowledge contains the seeds of contemplation of the divine."

"Happiness,... even the smallest happiness, is like a step out of Time, and the greatest happiness is sharing in Eternity."

"... the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul."