Karen Armstrong: Trending quotes

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Karen Armstrong: 112 quotes1 like

“If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void. (95)”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“Far from being the father of jihad, Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca.”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001)

“Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.”

Karen Armstrong

“We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicionwork with those that stress the interdependence and equality of all human beings. The choice is yours. (22)”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

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

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)
Source: A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

“Respect only has meaning as respect for those with whom I do not agree.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)
Source: A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

“[T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68)”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“Surely it's better to love others, however messy and imperfect the involvement, than to allow one's capacity for love to harden.”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery

“Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States.”

Karen Armstrong

Islam: A Short History (2000)
Context: The Western media often give the impression that the embattled and occasionally violent form of religiosity known as "fundamentalism" is a purely Islamic phenomenon. This is not the case. Fundamentalism is a global fact and has surfaced in every major faith in response to the problems of out modernity. There is fundamentalist Judaism, fundamentalist Christianity, fundamentalist Hinduism, fundamentalist Buddhism, fundamentalist Sikhism, and even fundamentalist Confucianism.

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

Karen Armstrong

Source: A Short History of Myth

“Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.”

Karen Armstrong

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“Human beings are the only animals who have the capacity to envisage something that is not present or something that does not yet exist but which is merely possible. The imagination has thus been the cause of our major achievements in science and technology as well as in art and religion.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

Source: A History of God (1993), Chapter 7, God of the Mystics

“Yet it is perhaps worth mentioning that the masculine tenor of God-talk is particularly problematic in English. In Hebrew, Arabic and French, however, grammatical gender gives theological discourse a sort of sexual counterpoint and dialectic, which provides a balance that is often lacking in English. Thus in Arabic al-Lah (the supreme name for God) is grammatically masculine, but the word for the divine and inscrutable essence of God—al-Dhat—is feminine.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)

“Monotheism is essentially inimical to tribalism: it demands that a people unite in a single community.”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001), Chapter 6, The Satanic Verses

“Deeds that seemed unimportant at the time would prove to have been momentous; a tiny act of selfishness and unkindness or, conversely, an unconsidered act of generosity would become the measure of a human life.”

Karen Armstrong

Muhammad: A Prophet of Our Times
Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001)

“The word qur’an means “recitation.” It was not designed for private perusal, but like most scriptures, it was meant to be read aloud, and the sound was an essential part of the sense. Poetry was important in Arabia. The poet was the spokesman, social historian, and cultural authority of his tribe, and over the years the Arabs had learned how to listen to a recitation and had developed a highly sophisticated critical ear.”

Karen Armstrong

Muhammad: A Prophet of Our Times
Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001)

“Muslim fundamentalists have toppled governments and either assassinated or threatened the enemies of Islam with the death penalty. Similarly, Jewish fundamentalists have settled in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the avowed intention of driving out the Arab inhabitants, using force if necessary. Thus they believe that they are paving a way for the advent of the Messiah, which is at hand. In all its forms, fundamentalism is a fiercely reductive faith.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)

“He was decisive and wholehearted in everything he did, so intent non the task at hand that he never looked over his shoulder, even if his cloak got caught in a thorny bush. When he did turn to speak to somebody, he used to swing his entire body and dress him full face. When he shook hands, he was never the first to withdraw his own. He inspired such confidence that he was known as al-Amin, the Reliable One.”

Karen Armstrong

Muhammad: A Prophet of Our Times
Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001)

“The new radical Islam is not simply inspired by the hatred of the West, however. Nor is it in any sense a homogeneous movement. Radical Muslims are primarily concerned to put their own house in order and to address the cultural dislocation that many have experienced in the modern period. It is really impossible to generalize about the rise of this more extreme form of the religion. It not only differs from country to country, but from town to town and from village to village. People feel cut off from their roots: Western culture has invaded the interstices of their lives.”

Karen Armstrong

Source: Muhammad: A Biography of The Prophet (2001), Chapter 1: "Muhammad The Enemy"

“The more I learned about the history of religion, the more my earlier misgivings appeared justified. The doctrines that I had accepted without question as a child were indeed man-made, constructed over a long period. Science seemed to have disposed of the Creator God, and biblical scholars had proved that Jesus had never claimed to be divine.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)