Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity. Karen Armstrong More Quotes by Karen Armstrong More Quotes From Karen Armstrong Alas, all traditions lose their primal purity and we all fail our founders. Karen Armstrong tradition failing purity 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 people. Karen Armstrong nun suitable people It is not difficult to find a religious justification for killing. Karen Armstrong difficult killing religious Ironically, the first thing that appealed to me about Islam was its pluralism. The fact that the Koran praises all the great prophets of the past. Karen Armstrong pluralism-is islam past I like silence; I'm a gregarious loner and without the solitude, I lose my gregariousness. Karen Armstrong loner solitude silence We are what we are because of the hard work, insights and achievements of countless others. Karen Armstrong gratitude achievement hard-work 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. Karen Armstrong secular-society different way Well, logos is science or reason, something that helps us to function practically and effectively in the world, and it must therefore be closely in tune and reflect accurately the realities of the world around us. Karen Armstrong tunes reality world 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. Karen Armstrong shapes fear world The hajj is one of the five essential practices of Islam; when they make the pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims ritually act out the central principles of their faith. Karen Armstrong islam principles practice Eventually, with regret, I left the religious life, and, once freed of the burden of failure and inadequacy, I felt my belief in God slip quietly away. He had never really impinged upon my life, though I had done my best to enable him to do so. Now that I no longer felt so guilty and anxious about him, he became too remote to be a reality. Karen Armstrong regret religious reality A gentleman is not born but crafted. He had to work on himself in the same way as a sculptor shaped a rough stone and made it a thing of beauty. Karen Armstrong gentleman stones way 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. Karen Armstrong twenties breakfast religion Religion starts with the perception that something is wrong. Karen Armstrong perception When violence becomes imbedded in a region, then this affects everything. It affects your dreams, your fantasies and relationships, and your religion becomes violent, too. Karen Armstrong fantasy violence dream Whatever conclusions we reach about the reality of God, the history of this idea must tell us something important about the human mind and the nature of our aspiration. Karen Armstrong mind reality ideas Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us: like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God-not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has it's own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions. Karen Armstrong appreciation mean art If professional religious leaders can [no longer] instruct..., our artists and creative writers can perhaps step into this priestly role and bring fresh insight to our lost and damaged world. Karen Armstrong creative artist religious Like art, religion is an imaginative and creative effort to find a meaning and value in human life. Karen Armstrong effort creative art I remind myself that my pain is not unique. Everybody suffers. Karen Armstrong pain unique suffering
