Criss Jami Quotes

“Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.”

— Criss Jami

“Simply minding one's own business is more offensive than being intrusive. Without ever saying a word one can make a person feel less-than.”

— Criss Jami

“Don't change your mind just because people are offended; change your mind if you're wrong.”

— Criss Jami

The first ingredient to being wrong is to claim that you are right. Geniuses have a knack for raising new questions. Hence by the public they are either admired for their creativity or, even more commonly so, detested for disturbing the daily peace of mind.

— Criss Jami

“A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.”

— Criss Jami

Time and time again does the pride of man influence his very own fall. While denying it, one gradually starts to believe that he is the authority, or that he possesses great moral dominion over others, yet it is spiritually unwarranted. By that point he loses steam; in result, he falsely begins trying to prove that unwarranted dominion by seizing the role of a condemner.

— Criss Jami

“Everyone judges constantly: positively judging one person is the same as negatively judging everyone else; it is to say that that person is superior in some sense.”

— Criss Jami

“For the believer, humility is honesty about one's greatest flaws to a degree in which he is fearless about truly appearing less righteous than another.”

— Criss Jami

“Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both.”

— Criss Jami

Constantly stopping to explain oneself may expand into a frustrating burden for the rare individual, so ceasing to do so is like finally dropping the weights and sprinting towards his goals. Those who insincerely misunderstand, who intentionally distort the motives of a pure-intentioned individual, then, no longer have the opportunity to block his path; instead, they are the ones left to stand on the sidelines shouting frustratedly in the wind of his trail.

— Criss Jami

“Drunken men give some of the best pep talks.”

— Criss Jami

“Sometimes a people lose their right to remain silent when pressured to remain silent.”

— Criss Jami

“A sign of power in a man is not only when people follow what he suggests, but also when people make a conscious effort to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.”

— Criss Jami

Thunderstorms are as much our friends as the sunshine.

— Criss Jami

“I only seem negative to the fortunate. That's because I show the less fortunate that they aren't less fortunate after all.”

— Criss Jami

Tolerance! The virtue that makes one bite his tongue so that he can tear out his hair.

— Criss Jami

After awhile you realize that putting your actions where your mouth is makes you less likely to have to put your money where your mouth is.

— Criss Jami

“I enjoy melancholic music and art. They take me to places I don't normally get to go.”

— Criss Jami

“Just as some people may conceal their own sinfulness thus seeming better than the norm, others expose their own sinfulness thus seeming worse than the norm.”

— Criss Jami

“There was a time when skepticism was an act of rebellion. Since to a degree I both believe in evolution and have faith, I can only conclude that, as prophesied, to have faith will someday be an act of rebellion.”

— Criss Jami

Yes, be different, but not for the vanities of being different.

— Criss Jami

“I think that there are excellent and poor thinking habits just as there are healthy and unhealthy eating habits; and when a man really knows how to think, you cannot necessarily assert that he thinks too much in a strictly negative connotation. Perhaps this is in a sense food for thought, whereas the other is fool for thought.”

— Criss Jami

“There's more to logic than identifying logical fallacies.”

— Criss Jami

For those constantly full of joy, they sometimes feel a little guilty for always feeling so good. That guilt is compassion: it flies in with an attempt to share one's joy with others who do not have it.

— Criss Jami

“Pretentiousness isn't always just big words and meaningless jargon, but also pretty words that either when put into action don't mean beans or hurt you in the long run. Oftentimes, the former appeals to the intellect whereas the latter appeals to the heart.”

— Criss Jami

For wordsmiths and masters of words, without necessarily being harsh with words, the words have a tendency to shoot straight to the hearts of people, and this either deeply touches them or deeply angers them. Like the apostles in all their loving controversies are those who are masters of words while combining this gift with truth.

— Criss Jami

“Lead's erasing then vanishing
Banished from whatever it is they're drinking and it's cleaned
Running from the pitcher as if it's her fantasy”

— Criss Jami

“Whenever you feel like feeling like a devil's advocate, Bible-thump. That, in a worldly world, is the great irony and satire of evangelism.”

— Criss Jami

“When comprehending how different people truly are, you also comprehend the absolute necessity of some divine authority.”

— Criss Jami

The only truths worth arguing about are those truths that could prevent or lead to circumstances that may bite us in the rear sooner or later.

— Criss Jami

“God writes love and speaks poetry.”

— Criss Jami

Philosophy may serve as the bridge between theology and science. All atheism is a philosophy, but not all philosophy is atheism. Philosophy ('love of wisdom') is simply a tool depending on how one uses it, and in some cases, logically understanding the nature of God and existence.

— Criss Jami

“It's simple, it's not that simple; or life is simple, but the things in it are not. When a man does not understand it, he tends to inflate it. When he does, he tends to deflate it. In the end, neither images are fully accurate.”

— Criss Jami

“Conscious minds can, at the most, comprehend that the whole idea of a 'God' is his superiority, his omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience; and therefore, at the least, desire him, someone far greater than themselves.”

— Criss Jami

“I'm not a political Christian; for the most part I allow people even their vain, earthly rights. And I certainly don't see anti-Christians as bad or evil (as if they actually have the power to pose any kind of threat against God Almighty), but rather complete idiots I was commanded to love.”

— Criss Jami

“Sanity for anyone is pretty much out of the question, as both the saint and the sinner appear only equally insane: the saint appears it for actually believing in a place of eternal torment; the sinner, for deciding to risk going to that place of eternal torment.”

— Criss Jami

“If life is music, I sometimes feel as though I was born on the off-beat of the song, and I love it. As Christian numbers reportedly decrease in America, my love for Christ feels as though it increases. Perhaps that is a little strange, yes, but in all honesty, I now want to be thought unfaithful about as much as a smug aristocrat wants to be thought a hobo.”

— Criss Jami

“To claim that one can never live a positive life with a negative mind is a very negative claim to make!”

— Criss Jami

In the heart of appeasement there's the fear of rejection, and in acts of fear there are mirrors of oppression.

— Criss Jami

“I've come to the point where I never feel the need to stop and evaluate whether or not I am happy. I'm just 'being', and without question, by default, it works.”

— Criss Jami

God loves atheists. The former ones make the most compelling theists because they're so empirically familiar with how atheists think.

— Criss Jami

“I cannot encourage any fabrication even for the sake of making people feel good. If I were to fabricate consciously and knowingly, I would not only be ordaining myself their enemy, but also ordaining myself God's enemy.”

— Criss Jami

“Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness.”

— Criss Jami

In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.

— Criss Jami

“The devil's happy when the critics run you off.”

— Criss Jami

“The best people are always the worst. They drive everyone mad by being so good at second-guessing everything bad.”

— Criss Jami

Love without humility results in the inclination to act as everyone's parent, humility without love results in the need to be everyone's child, and love with humility results in the desire to be a friend.

— Criss Jami

“The hope is indeed that some will experience and believe: The purpose of a number of spiritual gurus is to demonstrate to God-fearing men faux spirituality.”

— Criss Jami

If what you create seems to turn out much stranger than who you are as a person, it's probably because your heart is talking.

— Criss Jami

“Whenever I think of something but can't think of what it was I was thinking of, I can't stop thinking until I think I'm thinking of it again. I think I think too much.”

— Criss Jami