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Karen Armstrong

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Famous Karen Armstrong Quotes

“Every single one of the major world faiths, whether we're talking about Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Darwinism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have all come to the conclusion that what holds us back from our better self is ego, selfishness, greed, unkindness, hatred. And it all springs from a sense of thwarted ego.”

WorldSelfTalkingChristianityBuddhismEgoMajorsSpringHatredIslamGreedConclusionSelfishnessHinduismJudaismDarwinismConfucianismUnkindnessChristianity And Islam
Author:Karen Armstrong
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“A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was a tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect, he becomes a being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified.”

IfsWorldHumansDifferentSelfUniverseCausesCreativityKnowingAtheismEffectsEgoMachinesMereAtheistAbsurdRelateRejectsControlledTyrantsDictatorAgnosticJustifiedOmnipotentHuman FreedomThere Being No GodCogsTinkering
Author:Karen Armstrong
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“Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, of self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.”

WayHumansKindSelfShowsSeemsFoundSoundBehindsCreativeHuman NaturePossibilityTypeOrdinaryMythAll KindsTheologianGreat Faith
Book:The Spiral Staircase
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“After a time I found that I could almost listen to the silence, which had a dimension all of its own. I started to attend to its strange and beautiful texture, which of course, it was impossible to express in words. I discovered that I felt at home and alive in the silence, which compelled me to enter my interior world and around there. Without the distraction of constant conversation, the words on the page began to speak directly to my inner self. They were no long expressing ideas that were simply interesting intellectually, but were talking directly to my own yearning and perplexity.”

WorldLongIdeasSelfHomeBeautifulCoursesFoundSpeakFeltMy OwnInterestingSilenceTalkingAliveImpossibleStrangeConversationPagesConstantDimensionsDistractionYearningInteriorsCompelledInner SelfTexturePerplexityExpressing Ideas
Author:Karen Armstrong
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“The constant reprimands made me hyperconscious of my own performance, and so instead of getting rid of self, I had become embedded in the egoism I was supposed to transcend. Now I was beginning to understand that a silence that is not clamorous with vexation and worried self-regard can become part of the texture of your mind, can seep into you, moment by moment, and gradually change you.”

MindMadeSelfMomentsMy OwnSilencePerformancesRegardConstantWorriedTextureEgoismEmbeddedVexation
Author:Karen Armstrong
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“If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, of self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology.”

IfsLoveMadeSelfGodReligionNamesUnderstandingDifferencesCompassionKindnessDivineEmpathyNotionKillingTheologySympathyRighteousConcreteUnkindKinderSelf RighteousLoving KindnessEmpatheticUnkindnessBelligerence
Book:The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
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“If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation that helps us to make a painful rite of passage from one phase of life, one state of mind, to another. A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self-interest.”

IfsWorldMindLooksHeartArtSelfStatesHelpingShowsInterestAttentionTeachNovelWrittenSeriousPerspectivePainfulMythWorks Of ArtOur WorldState Of MindPassagesPhasesGreat WorkSelf InterestRiteInitiationRite Of PassagePhases Of Life
Author:Karen Armstrong
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