Karen Armstrong

There must be no coercion in matters of faith!

— Karen Armstrong

“Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.”

— Karen Armstrong

“Enmity shapes our consciousness and identity.”

— Karen Armstrong

Religions don't own compassion; it is a human virtue.

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.

— Karen Armstrong

I remind myself that my pain is not unique. Everybody suffers.

— Karen Armstrong

Geniuses are not always pleasant people.

— Karen Armstrong

Human beings have always been mythmakers.

— Karen Armstrong

The values of Islam are expressed by Muslims clearly. September 11 changed the world, and put Muslims on the spotlight.

— Karen Armstrong

“A person who is impartial, fair, calm, gentle, serene, accepting, and openhearted is indeed a refuge.”

— Karen Armstrong

“Suffering and want are no longer confined to distant, disadvantaged parts of the globe.”

— Karen Armstrong

The only way to show a true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God’s existence.

— Karen Armstrong

A theology should be like poetry, which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do.

— Karen Armstrong

For centuries, the Muslims were able to co-exist perfectly well with Jews and Christians in the Middle East.

— Karen Armstrong

there is no ascent to the heights without prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death.

— Karen Armstrong

“Fundamentalist faith was rooted in deep fear and anxiety that could not be assuaged by a purely rational argument.”

— Karen Armstrong

“Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger…

— Karen Armstrong

Religion is a practical discipline and in the 17th century in the West, we turned it onto a head trip. But it's…

— Karen Armstrong

“Again, what works well in the spiritual domain can become destructive and even immoral if interpreted literally and practically in the mundane…

— Karen Armstrong

“Disputes that were secular in origin, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, have been allowed to fester and become “holy,” and once they…

— Karen Armstrong

“people are finding that in their dramatically transformed circumstances, the old forms of faith no longer work for them: they cannot provide…

— Karen Armstrong

If your child dies, or you witness a terrible natural disaster, yes, you certainly want a scientific explanation as to what's happened.…

— Karen Armstrong

“We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicion or work with…

— Karen Armstrong

“You could stamp on this natural shoot of compassion, Mencius argued, just as you can cripple or deform your body, but if…

— Karen Armstrong

“The Golden Rule requires self-knowledge; it asks that we use our own feelings as a guide to our behavior with others. If…

— Karen Armstrong

If we try to hold on to our partial glimpses of the divine, we cut it down to our own size and…

— Karen Armstrong

Well, the idea of God as a supreme being means that he is simply like us, writ large, and just bigger and…

— Karen Armstrong

Today mythical thinking has fallen into disrepute; we often dismiss it as irrational and self-indulgent. But the imagination is also the faculty…

— Karen Armstrong

But human beings fall easily into despair, and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives…

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion has to become a discipline. It's something that you do. It's no good thinking that you agree with compassion or not,…

— Karen Armstrong

A science can diagnose a cancer and can even find a cure for it, but it can't, and a scientist will be…

— Karen Armstrong

“Wordsworth had discerned a 'spirit' which was at one and the same time immanent in and distinct from natural phenomena: 'A presence…

— Karen Armstrong

“Ibn al-Arabi gave this advice: Do not attach yourself to any particular creed exclusively, so that you may disbelieve all the rest;…

— Karen Armstrong

“We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic,…

— Karen Armstrong

“In the tenth century BC, the priests of India devised the Brahmodya competition, which would become a model of authentic theological discourse.…

— Karen Armstrong

After a time I found that I could almost listen to the silence, which had a dimension all of its own. I…

— Karen Armstrong

I want to create a rapid response team, right around the world, perhaps starting originally with our partners, similar to the one…

— Karen Armstrong

“This was the scientific age, and people wanted to believe that their traditions were in line with the new era, but this…

— Karen Armstrong

People knew there were two ways of coming at truth. One was science, or what the Greeks called Logos, reason, logic. And…

— Karen Armstrong

“Pascal's scientific achievements, therefore, did not give him much confidence in the human condition. When he contemplated the immensity of the universe,…

— Karen Armstrong