I don't think, in our kind of society, we'll be able to develop a full-blown mystical religion or concept of God because we seek instant gratification, fast food, endless talk and noise. The silence in mysticism is alien. People want to do a few courses in mysticism, rather like the way you do French before going on holiday, and emerge a mystic. Mysticism isn't like that.

—Karen Armstrong

God religion silence

About Karen Armstrong

Portrait of Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator known for her books on comparative religion. A former Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical Christian faith. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and graduated in...

More quotations from Karen Armstrong

I find it very difficult to ask God for things in the way that I was taught as a child. Do I believe God is going to take away my illness when he turned an entirely deaf ear to the 6 million Jews who went into the gas chambers?

—Karen Armstrong

There are some forms of religion that are bad; just as there’s bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too.

—Karen Armstrong

religion bad good

More quotations tagged with “silence”

It is my intention to make my entire life a rejection of, a protest against the crimes and injustices of war and political tyranny which threaten to destroy the whole race of [humankind] and the world with [it] .… I make monastic silence a protest against the lies of politicians, propagandists, and agitators, and when I speak it is to deny that my faith and my church can ever be aligned with these forces of injustice and destruction. But it is true, nevertheless, that the faith in which I believe is also invoked by many who believe in war, believe in racial injustices, believe in self-righteous and lying forms of tyranny. My life must, then, be a protest against these also, and perhaps against these most of all.

—Thomas Merton

justice war humanity politics life silence rejection church crime protest faith lies racism tyranny

Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.

—George Steiner

reality silence language

There is a difference between saying goodbye and letting go. Goodbye is not permanent. You can meet years later and share what happened in your life. You can smile and laugh about all the nonsense that you both went through. However, letting go is being okay with never seeing this person ever again… being okay with never knowing how their life turned out… being okay with fifty or more years of silence… being okay with running into that person at a grocery store and having them not acknowledge your presence. This is the part of life that doesn't sit well with me and never will. It tears my heart in pieces, robs me of gratitude, drains me of anything positive and eats at the faith that holds on.

—Shannon L. Alder

life silence gratitude presence knowledge man will art seeing heart good faith tears goodbye

This love is silent.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

—Josh Billings

power silence argument refutation

History

3 Dec 2014 Added