Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes Quotes

“Marriage is earth’s closest image for Heaven because it is all or nothing, forever - a leap of faith.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes: Life As Vanity, Job: Life As Suffering, Song of Songs: Life As Love

“Despair itself can be hopeful if it is honest.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes: Life As Vanity, Job: Life As Suffering, Song of Songs: Life As Love

“god is love, and music is the language of love; therefore, music is the language of god. music is a language more profound than words. how often have you heard a great piece of music and felt that? great music does not just make you feel good; great music suggests some profound truth or mysterious meaning that objectively true but not translatable into words. attempts to translate music's meaning into words always fail. it is like trying to allegorize a symbol, trying to reduce to one literal, verbal meaning something that has many nonliteral, nonverbal meanings.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes: Life As Vanity, Job: Life As Suffering, Song of Songs: Life As Love

“As society grows, it knows more and more about less and less. It knows more about the little things and less about the big things. It knows more about everything and less about Everything.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes: Life As Vanity, Job: Life As Suffering, Song of Songs: Life As Love

“that the ones who laugh the loudest and the most are usually the shallowest and the most foolish? And that the wisest are usually the gravest? Perhaps the wise are grave because they remember the grave.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes--Life As Vanity, Job--Life As Suffering, Song of Songs--Life As Love

“انما الحكيم وحده يعرف الحماقة. اما الحمقي فلا يعرفون الحكمة ولا الحماقة. فكما نحتاج الي حكمة لنعرف الحماقة, والي نور لنعرف الظلمة, كذلك نحتاج الي عمق كي نعرف الباطل, الي معني كي نعرف اللامعني. ويقول باسكال: "اي شخص لا يري بطلان الحياة لابد ان يكون بالحقيقة باطلا جدا".”
― بيتر كريفت, فلسفات الحياة الثلاث بحسب أسفار الجامعة وأيوب ونشيد الأنشاد

“Ancient ethics always dealt with three questions. Modern ethics usually deals with only one, or at the most two. The three questions are like the three things a fleet of ships is told by its sailing orders. (The metaphor is from C. S. Lewis.) First, the ships must know how to avoid bumping into each other. This is social ethics, and modern as well as ancient ethicists deal with it. Second, they must know how to stay shipshape and avoid sinking. This is individual ethics, virtues and vices, character building, and we hear very little about this from our modern ethical philosophers. Third, and most important of all, they must know why the fleet is at sea in the first place. What is their mission, their destination? This is the question of the summum bonum, and no modern philosophers except the existentialists seem even to be interested in this, the greatest of all questions. Perhaps that is why most modern philosophy seems so weak and wimpy, so specialized and elitist, and above all so boring, to ordinary people.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes--Life As Vanity, Job--Life As Suffering, Song of Songs--Life As Love

“life is a quest for love and a quest for god, and there is no car or plane for this trip. it is an old-fashioned quest made on our own two feet.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life - Ecclesiastes: Life As Vanity, Job: Life As Suffering, Song of Songs: Life As Love

“No. The philosopher who wrote Ecclesiastes is the least vain of philosophers. Vanity cannot detect itself, just as folly cannot detect itself. Only the wise know folly; fools know neither wisdom nor folly. Just as it takes wisdom to know folly, light to know darkness, it takes profundity to know vanity, meaning to know meaninglessness. Pascal says, “Anyone who does not see the vanity of life must be very vain indeed.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes--Life As Vanity, Job--Life As Suffering, Song of Songs--Life As Love

“The family that fights together stays together.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes--Life As Vanity, Job--Life As Suffering, Song of Songs--Life As Love

“Ancient ethics always dealt with three questions. Modern ethics usually deals with only one, or at the most two. The three questions are like the three things a fleet of ships is told by its sailing orders. (The metaphor is from C. S. Lewis.) First, the ships must know how to avoid bumping into each other. This is social ethics, and modern as well as ancient ethicists deal with it. Second, they must know how to stay shipshape and avoid sinking. This is individual ethics, virtues and vices, character building, and we hear very little about this from our modern ethical philosophers. Third, and most important of all, they must know why the fleet is at sea in the first place. What is their mission, their destination? This is the question of the summum bonum, and no modern philosophers except the existentialists seem even to be interested in this, the greatest of all questions. Perhaps that is why most modern philosophy seems so weak and wimpy, so specialized and elitist, and above all so boring, to ordinary people. I think I know why modern philosophers dare not raise this greatest of questions; because they have no answer to it. It is a hole so big that only the courage of an existentialist or the faith of a theist can fill it.”
― Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes--Life As Vanity, Job--Life As Suffering, Song of Songs--Life As Love