Quotessence
Home / Authors / Criss Jami
Criss Jami

Criss Jami Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllLoveGodTruthMenApologeticsPeoplePrideHumilitySinChrist

Famous Criss Jami Quotes

“If you want to know how negative you are, pay attention to how much you hate negativity in other people. Fragile, artificial positivity needs always to be surrounded by more positivity in order to stay positive, but the ability to be positive, happy, and even, at times, appreciative around 'negative people' is the mark of real positivity.”

HappinessJoyAttitudeSadnessPositivePositive ThinkingNegativePeace Of MindFragileToxic People
Book:Healology
Create image

“A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.”

TruthSocialCancerPropagandaDeceitGossipIntrovertLieRumorSlanderLonerMassesLibel
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“It is life and death, Life like you are left With a phantom limb: To lose your wife Or your best friend - With the right leg gone - Attempting to feel, A tempting to mend - Or an arm stretched strong - Our tendencies to steal, Thence heal the way it ends; Prolonging as we reach back again, But then again, So far? See, to reject what is real, My love, has been Our greatest sin”

LoveDeathPoetryFriendshipLossSinMarriageRelationshipDivorcePhantom Limb
Author:Criss Jami
Create image

“However true or not they may be to us, the trouble with all those tired, platitudinous, hackneyed mantras, which go along the lines of 'Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship,' is that many of us use them not as cries to embrace the grace of God but rather as licenses and/or excuses to celebrate sin. Make way for our beloved and ready, willing and able Christ to clean up your life already.”

ReligionChristSinChristianityGraceRelationshipHolinessHypocrisyPlatitudesFalse Christianity
Book:Healology
Create image

“As for those who spite you, and seemingly just because, it's only evident that they're learning from you. Maybe you taste bad - kind of like medicine, kind of like truth - and to them, you're thought unsafe. There is flattery in being chewed out and spit up. Humans have always had a hard time digesting foreign things.”

TruthMotivationFearProcessLearningDevelopmentCriticismEncouragementMedicineSpiteFlatteryRidiculeMisunderstoodIntimidatingHatersDisagreeableDigestionForeignerChewed Up
Book:Healology
Create image

“Work was intended not to give a man a reason to live, but rather to give him a means to live.”

LifeReasonPurposeHumanityPeaceWorkMoneyBusinessAttitudeResponsibilityDesignFoodHard WorkAmbitionLivingEthicsResourcesLaborSlaveryBillsBusyLifestyleVanityMaking MoneyEnjoymentPeace Of MindJobVacationLazinessWork EthicCareerRelaxationVocationIdlenessWorkingHustleIntentMeansHustlerSlothfulnessMoney MakingMake A LivingEnjoyment Of LifeHard Labor
Book:Healology
Create image

“The emphasis and the reason for a pure humility is to result in love for others; not always necessarily the belittlement of self. When there is pride and self-righteousness and being pretentiously too far above, generally, one has a difficult time reaching the compassionate side of love for others, the side that understands (or at least attempts to understand): 'I am aware that I am not so far from falling in the same way.' Humility seeks to understand, and sometimes even relate; and in result, the love lovingly, properly, effectively wills the removal of the destructive sins of another as from oneself.”

LoveSinCompassionHumilityPrideCaringPurityHypocrisyDiscernmentJudgmentalSelf DestructionCaring For OthersSelf RighteousnessConstructive Criticism
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“Dare to be the most charitable friend that one can know - therefore, care for the orphan and the poor and the widow - share everything through prayers from your heart to spare a soul, so that you barely do it for the credit or for show (hardly for rarity, too, although you reap what you sow). Through sincerity do what you trust; it scares many foes. Also, show no partiality: 'too unfair' must go. Plus know it's a slow, terrible thing to love just to boast; there's no scarcity of things true being cut in the throat: and blown up, such harsh realities roast us coast to coast (as though love's some dark noir since neither good nor bad may gloat (doesn't matter if you sacrifice your sun or a goat)). But regardless, much to the contrary, all seeds need growth; thus, deplorable, horrible or not, we'll bleed love's flow. More pouring out meaningful ways to keep the boat afloat; less rowing for it seems eternal days around a moat: because good deeds, clichés, these are what make the world still glow, placing smiles on its face while it toasts to our Lord of hosts. It's like grace is needed most when even one's been brought low, so dare to be the most charitable one you will know.”

LoveGivingCompassionCharityCaringSharingBraggingDonationSelf RighteousnessBoasting
Author:Criss Jami
Create image

“God is our final say in who and what's negative and who and what's positive in our lives. It is best not to have this so over-simplified as the illusioned superstitionists have it; an infinite being's tests may not always be so flowery, and the things we may see as positive are in many cases simply desires of our sinful nature. We are to protect our spirit without falling into the narcissistic mistake of trying to protect our selfish emotions, which the latter, in turn, is more than unlikely to bring peace and happiness. But rather guilt and emptiness. When one walks around constantly, in his mind, attempting to separate positive versus negative people, he is already controlled by something even worse than those he calls the 'negative people', and that is before he spots it soon enough to avoid it as he hypocritically tries to avoid them.”

GodSpiritualJudgmentPositivityNegativityDiscernmentSuperstitionApologeticsHypocritical Illusion
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“In my experiences, the common critic of Christianity, when he thinks of Christianity, imagines a sort of elementary, Sunday School blunder of elements: fiery Hell, an angry God, 'try not to sin', 'be good so that you can go to Heaven', absurd miracles, hyper-fundamentalist tales, religious hypocrites, and Jesus telling people not to judge. There is no horse more dead than such. I maintain that understanding Christianity and the Bible is quite like painting a piece of art. Let a toddler paint a puppy; then let an adult who is a long-time painter paint the very same puppy. They are both paintings of the puppy, but one is far more detailed, rational, realistic, and believable than the other. One is distorted and comical; the other is proportional and lively. One can write off Theology if he so pleases, but he might not be very wise in using the toddler's painting when it comes time to identify the real puppy or when trying to confront actual men of the Faith.”

GodFaithUnderstandingChristianityJudgmentCriticismHypocrisyFundamentalismApologeticsReligious Fundamentalism
Book:Healology
Create image

“When it comes to moral dilemmas and matters of discerning right justice, my natural sympathy so often happens to land on the opposite end of that of most of my peers. I sometimes wonder if this is nothing more than the misguidedness and the wickedness of my own heart. I wonder other times if God wires some of us in such a way so that fair discourse might then be provided, so that honest and unbiased, due process is ultimately more likely to be carried out. Perhaps it is all necessary for variance of perception, for mindful debate: that the heart is meant to create a bit of bias on certain issues; as between one another, they weigh and balance. For not all hearts are the same.”

TruthJusticeJudgmentArgumentMercyDebateBiasDiscourseOpinionsPerspectives
Book:Healology
Create image

“To be naive is to be unaware of how stupid and cruel other people are; but, by some definitions, ignorance is nearly the opposite of naivety in being a kind of cynicism, in being unaware of their intelligence and humanity. It seems to be a normal although unfortunate case that the great many of us consciously abhor ignorance in others yet subconsciously practice it ourselves: as naivety is apparent and well-known to inflict its damage upon oneself; whereas the alternative and the easier, ignorance, its damage upon others.”

HumanityBrainPsychologyAwarenessIgnoranceTrustBalanceJudgmentConsciousHatredIntelligenceStupidityHarmCrueltySelfishnessDamageHypocrisyUnconsciousCynicismSubconsciousFoolishnessDistrustDiscernmentCognitionAbhorrenceNaivetyUnawarenessJudging PeopleSelfishness Judging People
Book:Healology
Create image

“Excuses will become self-refuting. No man who does not believe that Jesus is the perfect, sinless Son of God can, in his desperation and love for sin, reasonably use and misconstrue Jesus' words that unless a Christian is perfect, then that Christian cannot judge sin. Otherwise this non-believer is unconsciously entertaining a belief that Jesus, unlike any other man to ever live, was indeed perfect and sinless in His judgments and therefore that Christian is supposed to be like Him.”

GodChristianChristSinJudgmentJesus ChristPerfectionExcusesApologetics
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“Younger persons tend to care more about what other people think, but at the same time, less of consequences. Older persons often appear the opposite: They tend to care less about what other people think all the while much more considering consequences. Duly note that this is a general point, and with plenty of room for exceptions, but the deeper reason is that, for better or for worse, persons who are more heart-centered think in the present; those who are more mind-centered, they feel for the future.”

MindHeartAgeYouthFuturePresentConsequencesLiving In The MomentThinking About The FutureFor Better Or For Worse
Author:Criss Jami
Create image

“It is ironic that constructive thinkers are often misunderstood as negative, as they differ from those longing for positivity: constructive thinkers have been conditioned to find positive in negative rather than suffering from the negative in negative. Or as Paul the Apostle wrote, 'I have learned the secret to contentment in any and every circumstance.' He was right. Indeed the Lord is our strength, especially under the commandment to love one another. Otherwise we are nothing and easily thrown about by both our own and other people's mind control in a painful, mental, physical desperation to run from every thought, every thing, and every one not seeming so positive or immediately beneficial to us.”

ThinkingLoveGodSufferingStrengthPositivityNegativityApostle PaulConstructive Thought
Book:Killosophy
Create image