“In the effort to regain a space of true leisure, to bring about a fundamentally correct attitude and "exercise" of leisure, the real difficulty of this so-often despaired-of project consists in the fact that the ultimate root of leisure lies outside the range of our responsible, voluntary action. The fullest harmony with the world, to be precise, cannot come about on the basis of a voluntary decision. Above all, one cannot simply "make" it happen for some ulterior purpose. There are certain things which one cannot do "in order to …"”

—  Josef Pieper

do something else.
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), Leisure, the Basis of Culture, p. 58

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Josef Pieper photo
Josef Pieper 45
German philosopher 1904–1997

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