--- title: "20 Way Quotes By Karen Armstrong" description: "20 Way quotes by Karen Armstrong. Plus more from Karen Armstrong and more Way sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a91/karen-armstrong-1053_artist_a-gentleman-is-not-born-but-crafted-he-h_16751.jpg" --- > [A gentleman is not born but crafted. He had to work on himself in the same way as a sculptor shaped a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/a-gentleman-is-not-born-but-crafted-he-had-to-work-on-himself-in-the/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a91/karen-armstrong-1053_artist_a-gentleman-is-not-born-but-crafted-he-h_16751.jpg) > [My study of religion, which I regard in many ways as an art form, is a search for meaning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/my-study-of-religion-which-i-regard-in-many-ways-as-an-art-form-is-a/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ae/karen-armstrong-1053_art_my-study-of-religion-which-i-regard-in-m_974643.jpg) > [Now I think one of the reasons why religion developed in the way that it did over the centuries was precisely to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/now-i-think-one-of-the-reasons-why-religion-developed-in-the-way-that/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37a/karen-armstrong-1053_bent_now-i-think-one-of-the-reasons-why-relig_1873318.jpg) > [Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/compassion-doesn-t-of-course-mean-feeling-sorry-for-people-or-pity/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/756/karen-armstrong-1053_compassion_compassion-doesn-t-of-course-mean-feelin_2669219.jpg) > [The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God’s existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/the-only-way-to-show-a-true-respect-for-god-is-to-act-morally-while-2/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fba/karen-armstrong-1053_existence_the-only-way-to-show-a-true-respect-for_2555549.jpg) > [Religion isn’t about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-isn-t-about-believing-things-it-s-ethical-alchemy-it-s-about/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/926/karen-armstrong-1053_alchemy_religion-isn-t-about-believing-things-it_2150072.jpg) > [I believe in holiness and sacredness in other people. It doesn't mean that the clouds part and I see God. That's a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in-other-people-it-doesn-t-mean/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/karen-armstrong-1053_about_i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in_1182586.jpg) > [Religion is hard work. Its insights are not self-evident and have to be cultivated in the same way as an appreciation of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-not-self-evident-and-have-to/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eaf/karen-armstrong-1053_appreciation_religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-n_1357354.jpg) > [When the horror recedes and the world resumes its normal shape, you cannot forget it. You have seen what is really there,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-resumes-its-normal-shape-you/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/karen-armstrong-1053_consoling_when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-re_975372.jpg) > [Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-impossible-propositions-before-2/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/821/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_896980.jpg) > [In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left home, pilgrims were not permitted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-any-kind-was-forbidden-from-the/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/karen-armstrong-1053_angry_in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-an_2019135.jpg) > [We want to create, never mind the leaders or the bishops or chief rabbis or imams, or Popes. We want to create…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders-or-the-bishops-or-chief/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c3/karen-armstrong-1053_bishops_we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders_53677.jpg) > [Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-secular-society-god-has-been/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/karen-armstrong-1053_center-stage_yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-s_460969.jpg) > [I have become convinced, through my studies, that the only way to achieve a safe, just and viable world is to live…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studies-that-the-only-way-to/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/karen-armstrong-1053_achieve_i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studi_37328.jpg) > [People knew there were two ways of coming at truth. One was science, or what the Greeks called Logos, reason, logic. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-coming-at-truth-one-was-science-or/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f5/karen-armstrong-1053_addresses_people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-comin_1594183.jpg) > [Theology is-- or should be-- a species of poetry,which read quickly or encountered in a hubbub of noise makes no sense. You…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-poetry-which-read-quickly-or/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/682/karen-armstrong-1053_agendas_theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-po_2088973.jpg) > [Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-impossible-propositions-before/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a07/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_300999.jpg) > [I tremble for our world, where, in the smallest ways, we find it impossible, as Marshall Hodgson enjoined, to find room for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-tremble-for-our-world-where-in-the-smallest-ways-we-find-it/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/27e/karen-armstrong-1053_accommodate_i-tremble-for-our-world-where-in-the-sma_1681687.jpg) > [Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, of self-emptying, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/theologians-in-all-the-great-faiths-have-devised-all-kinds-of-myths/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96b/karen-armstrong-1053_all-kinds_theologians-in-all-the-great-faiths-have_1895591.jpg) > [Religions have found that if you behave in a certain way, if you sort of perform certain rituals that expand your mind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religions-have-found-that-if-you-behave-in-a-certain-way-if-you-sort/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/415/karen-armstrong-1053_ability_religions-have-found-that-if-you-behave_588147.jpg) ## Other authors on Way ## More by Karen Armstrong > [If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/if-it-is-written-and-read-with-serious-attention-a-novel-like-a-myth/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [A gentleman is not born but crafted. He had to work on himself in the same way as a sculptor shaped a rough stone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/a-gentleman-is-not-born-but-crafted-he-had-to-work-on-himself-in-the/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [I was a lousy nun. I couldn't do it. I couldn't find God. It wasn't suitable for me. It is suitable for very few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-was-a-lousy-nun-i-couldn-t-do-it-i-couldn-t-find-god-it-wasn-t/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [I have become convinced, through my studies, that the only way to achieve a safe, just and viable world is to live by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studies-that-the-only-way-to/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [In the past some of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians, such as Maimonides, Aquinas and Ibn Sina, made it clear that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/in-the-past-some-of-the-most-influential-jewish-christian-and-muslim/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [The great task of our time is to build a global society, where people can live together in peace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/the-great-task-of-our-time-is-to-build-a-global-society-where-people/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [We want to create, never mind the leaders or the bishops or chief rabbis or imams, or Popes. We want to create a grassroots…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders-or-the-bishops-or-chief/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [If we don't manage to implement the Golden Rule globally, so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/if-we-don-t-manage-to-implement-the-golden-rule-globally-so-that-we/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [After I left the convent, for 15 years I was worn out with religion, I wanted nothing whatever to do with it. I felt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/after-i-left-the-convent-for-15-years-i-was-worn-out-with-religion-i/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [“As we have seen, so many of the things we once took for granted have proved unreliable that we may have to “forget” old…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/as-we-have-seen-so-many-of-the-things-we-once-took-for-granted-have/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [Yet a personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/yet-a-personal-god-can-become-a-grave-liability-he-can-be-a-mere-idol/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [“I discovered that I felt at home and alive in the silence, which compelled me to enter my interior world and around there. Without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-discovered-that-i-felt-at-home-and-alive-in-the-silence-which/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [Each of the world religions has its own particular genius, its own special insight into the nature and requirements of compassion, and has something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/each-of-the-world-religions-has-its-own-particular-genius-its-own/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [“all rightly guided religion that submitted wholly to God, refused to worship man-made deities and preached that justice and equality came from the same…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/all-rightly-guided-religion-that-submitted-wholly-to-god-refused-to/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [“advocates of evolutionary theory since Thomas H. Huxley (1825–95) have found altruism problematic.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/advocates-of-evolutionary-theory-since-thomas-h-huxley-1825-95-have/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/karen-armstrong/#itemlist", "name": "20 Way Quotes By Karen Armstrong", "numberOfItems": 20, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A gentleman is not born but crafted. 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That's a juvenile way of thinking about it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in-other-people-it-doesn-t-mean/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/karen-armstrong-1053_about_i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in_1182586.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/karen-armstrong-1053_about_i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in_1182586.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/karen-armstrong-1053_about_i-believe-in-holiness-and-sacredness-in_1182586.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I believe in holiness and sacredness in other people. 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Its insights are not self-evident and have to be cultivated in the same way as an appreciation of art, music, or poetry must be developed.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-not-self-evident-and-have-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eaf/karen-armstrong-1053_appreciation_religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-n_1357354.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eaf/karen-armstrong-1053_appreciation_religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-n_1357354.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eaf/karen-armstrong-1053_appreciation_religion-is-hard-work-its-insights-are-n_1357354.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Religion is hard work. Its insights are not self-evident and have to be cultivated in the same way as an…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When the horror recedes and the world resumes its normal shape, you cannot forget it. You have seen what is really there, the empty horror that exists when the consoling illusion of our mundane experience is stripped away, so you can never respond to the world in quite the same way again.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-resumes-its-normal-shape-you/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/karen-armstrong-1053_consoling_when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-re_975372.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/karen-armstrong-1053_consoling_when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-re_975372.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/173/karen-armstrong-1053_consoling_when-the-horror-recedes-and-the-world-re_975372.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When the horror recedes and the world resumes its normal shape, you cannot forget it. You have seen what is…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-impossible-propositions-before-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/821/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_896980.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/821/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_896980.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/821/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_896980.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left home, pilgrims were not permitted to carry weapons, to swat an insect or speak an angry word, a discipline that introduced them to a new way of living.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-any-kind-was-forbidden-from-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/karen-armstrong-1053_angry_in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-an_2019135.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/karen-armstrong-1053_angry_in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-an_2019135.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/karen-armstrong-1053_angry_in-the-holy-city-of-mecca-violence-of-an_2019135.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left home, pilgrims were…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We want to create, never mind the leaders or the bishops or chief rabbis or imams, or Popes. We want to create a grassroots movement where people will become attuned to uncompassionate discourse in the same way as we are now attuned to sort of gender imbalance in our speech.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders-or-the-bishops-or-chief/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c3/karen-armstrong-1053_bishops_we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders_53677.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c3/karen-armstrong-1053_bishops_we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders_53677.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6c3/karen-armstrong-1053_bishops_we-want-to-create-never-mind-the-leaders_53677.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We want to create, never mind the leaders or the bishops or chief rabbis or imams, or Popes. We want to…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-secular-society-god-has-been/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/karen-armstrong-1053_center-stage_yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-s_460969.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/karen-armstrong-1053_center-stage_yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-s_460969.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/karen-armstrong-1053_center-stage_yes-all-fundamentalists-feel-that-in-a-s_460969.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I have become convinced, through my studies, that the only way to achieve a safe, just and viable world is to live by the Golden Rule. This is what drives my writing. I want to point out this interconnectedness, point out the beauty of the faith in all traditions without exception, show the complexity of the atrocities that we have experienced, and our shared culpability as a species.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studies-that-the-only-way-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/karen-armstrong-1053_achieve_i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studi_37328.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/karen-armstrong-1053_achieve_i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studi_37328.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/karen-armstrong-1053_achieve_i-have-become-convinced-through-my-studi_37328.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I have become convinced, through my studies, that the only way to achieve a safe, just and viable world is…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "People knew there were two ways of coming at truth. One was science, or what the Greeks called Logos, reason, logic. And that was essential that the discourse of science or logic related directed to the external world. The other was mythos, what the Greeks called myth, which didn't mean a fantasy story, but it was a narrative associated with ritual and ethical practice but it helped us to address problems for which there were no easy answers, like mortality, cruelty, the sorrow that overtakes us all that's part of the human condition. And these two were not in opposition, we needed both.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-coming-at-truth-one-was-science-or/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f5/karen-armstrong-1053_addresses_people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-comin_1594183.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f5/karen-armstrong-1053_addresses_people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-comin_1594183.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9f5/karen-armstrong-1053_addresses_people-knew-there-were-two-ways-of-comin_1594183.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“People knew there were two ways of coming at truth. One was science, or what the Greeks called Logos…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 16, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Theology is-- or should be-- a species of poetry,which read quickly or encountered in a hubbub of noise makes no sense. You have to open yourself to a poem with a quiet, receptive mind, in the same way you might listen to a difficult piece of music... If you seize upon a poem and try to extort its meaning before you are ready, it remains opaque. If you bring your own personal agenda to bear upon it, the poem will close upon itself like a clam, because you have denied its unique and separate identity, its inviolate holiness.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-poetry-which-read-quickly-or/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/682/karen-armstrong-1053_agendas_theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-po_2088973.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/682/karen-armstrong-1053_agendas_theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-po_2088973.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/682/karen-armstrong-1053_agendas_theology-is-or-should-be-a-species-of-po_2088973.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Theology is-- or should be-- a species of poetry,which read quickly or encountered in a hubbub of noise…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 17, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed. The myths and laws of religion are not true because they they conform to some metaphysical, scientific or historical reality but because they are life enhancing. They tell you how human nature functions, but you will not discover their truth unless you apply these myths and doctrines to your own life and put them into practice.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Armstrong" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-impossible-propositions-before/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a07/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_300999.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a07/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_300999.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a07/karen-armstrong-1053_accepting_religion-is-not-about-accepting-twenty-i_300999.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that…” — Karen Armstrong", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 18, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I tremble for our world, where, in the smallest ways, we find it impossible, as Marshall Hodgson enjoined, to find room for the other in our minds. If we cannot accommodate a viewpoint in a friend without resorting to unkindness, how can we hope to heal the terrible problems of our planet? 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They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. 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