The Line Through the Heart Quotes

“One excuse for connecting them is that the study of politics is a branch of the study of ethics. This old claim strikes most people as impractical and unrealistic, not to say bizarre. On the contrary, it is utterly hardheaded. What could be more impractical and unrealistic than to imagine that a bad man can be a great statesman, or that a people can have a wholly different government than it deserves?1 We may look at the matter from another side too. Ethics is the study of the good, and even a corrupt government rests on some corrupt idea of the good—for example, that the good is gaining power, amassing wealth, or protecting the position of the privileged. The politics of an age may rest on a crumbling foundation derived from a mistaken ethics, but it will have an ethical foundation.”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“Courage requires not mere fearlessness but a right estimate of what things are worth fighting for; in”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“Justice requires acute perception of what is really due to the other person; in”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“morality would be undermined without a belief in divine judgment, but”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“The difficulty is that without a direct revelation from the Author of the law, it is impossible to know whether the possibility of forgiveness is real. Therefore”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“Can I admit to myself that I know about, say, the goodness of love and the evil of murder, while not admitting to myself that I know about the goodness of God and the evil of refusing Him?”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity. Others seek knowledge that they may themselves be known: that is vanity. But there are still others who seek knowledge in order to serve and edify others, and that is charity.” The”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“Natural function and personal meaning are not alien to each other, they are connected. In”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“If it really were impossible to derive an ought from the is of the human design, then the practice of medicine would make no sense. Natural”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“deliberation cannot be merely an extension of sense, for we are capable of being attracted by non-sensible objects like knowledge and justice. Still”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction

“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”
― J. Budziszewski, The Line through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction