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Religion Quotes by Huston Smith

47 Religion quotes by Huston Smith

All Religion quotes Huston Smith’s page

Huston Smith says he has spent decades exploring the world’s major religions to understand them better. He predicts that science and spirituality will soon work together, unlocking new human potential. He also notes that true spiritual growth means changing one’s inner traits, not just having mystical experiences.

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The faith I was born into formed me.

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All -isms end up in schisms.

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Swami Ashokananda was a brilliant and accomplished spiritual teacher in the West.

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Religion is the call to confront reality; to master the self.

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Religion teaches us that our lives here on earth are to be used for transformation.

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The goal of spiritual life is not altered states, but altered traits

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If we take the world’s enduring religions at their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race.

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You subtract Christianity from Huston Smith, and there is no Huston Smith left.

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Every society and religion has rules, for both have moral laws. And the essence of morality consists, as in art, of drawing…

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A nation can assume that the addition of the words "under God" to its pledge of allegiance gives evidence that its citizens…

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No one in human history has given as much thought to the interweaving of altered states of consciousness and religion as I…

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In the post-individualistic era, science and spirituality will become allies, and human beings will realize a vast potentiality now only dimly felt.

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“Religion arose out of celebration and its opposite, bereavement, both of which cry out for collective expression.”

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“Such power as I possess for working in the political field has derived from my experiments in the spiritual field.”

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First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community,…

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It is commonly said and known that each civilization has its own religion. Now my claim is that if we look deeper,…

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“Muhammad adhered meticulously to the charter he forged for Medina, which - grounded as it was in the Quranic injunction, "Let there…

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Entheogens are not to be lightly trifled with... However, if taken with the right attitude and in the proper setting, psychoactive drugs…

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I don't want to justify religion in terms of its benefits to us. I believe that, on balance, it does a lot…

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Walnuts have a shell, and they have a kernel. Religions are the same. They have an essence, but then they have a…

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Modernity sees humanity as having ascended from what is inferior to it - life begins in slime and ends in intelligence -…

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the heart of religion is not altered states but altered traits of character. For me, then, the test of a substance's religious…

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People are not losing their religious needs, but they are going to three places to get their needs met. One is to…

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I think it matters almost infinitely that we practice one of the authentic religions. But if you mean does it make any…

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Historically, religion has given people another world to live in, a world more adaptive to the human spirit. As a student of…

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“Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman, the…

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As the twentieth century began, science equaled a materialistic worldview. As the twenty-first century began, the worldview of science, at least of…

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“How many planes there are, we do not know. The levels of nature that science discriminates give us no clue, for these…

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“What a strange fellowship this is, the God seekers in every land, lifting their voices in the most disparate ways imaginable to…

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“The only power that can effect transformations of the order (of Jesus) is love. It remained for the 20th century to discover…

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“Building upon this early conception of the Church, Christians came to think of it as having a double aspect. Insofar as it…

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The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature.…

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God has to speak to each person in their own language, in their own idioms. Take Spanish, Chinese. You can express the…

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I'm not a chauvinist. I'm a universalist. I think that God imploded, like a spiritual big bang, to launch the eight civilizations…

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Most mystics do not want to read religious wisdom; they want to be it. A postcard of a beautiful lake is not…

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“The Infinite discloses itself, as much of itself as our finite minds can comprehend, by building the universal grammars of language and…

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'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God' suggested to me a heavenly welfare program for the meek. Today…

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“God has made different religions to suit different aspirations, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path…

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A religion made up solely of heightened religious experiences would not be a religion at all. ...The major religious traditions address the…

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“Institutions are not pretty. Show me a pretty government. Healing is wonderful, but the American Medical Association? Learning is wonderful, but universities?…

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More by Huston Smith

“The Transcendent was my morning meal, we had the Eternal at lunch, and I ate a slice of the Infinite at dinner.”

The first koan do not have rational answers. They are techniques devised over the millennia for triggering an actual experience.

We all carry it within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted, and cannot be destroyed.

A nation can assume that the addition of the words "under God" to its pledge of allegiance gives evidence that its citizens actually believe…

“Some friends accused me of whoring after the Infinite. Well, what better whoredom is there?”

Imagine a man besottedly in love: he won't waste time speculating whether other women equally merit his affection.

“If my opinion that substance requires a true unity were founded only on a definition I had formulated in opposition to common usage, *then…

The New Age movement looks like a mixed bag. I see much in it that seems good: It's optimistic; it's enthusiastic; it has the…

Science can prove nothing about God, because God lies outside its province.

I had assumed that Bush's seemingly inflexible policy to support Sharon was for political reasons of his getting elected. But as to whether he…

The Buddha is in me, the Buddha is in you. Live up to it.

“How many planes there are, we do not know. The levels of nature that science discriminates give us no clue, for these all pertain…

So always, if we look back, concern for face-to-face morality, and its modern emphasis on justice as well, have historically evolved as religious issues.

All -isms end up in schisms.

Most of the book deals with things we already know yet never learn.