Quotes of Huston Smith - somelinesforyou

“ The most powerful moral influence is example. ”

- Huston Smith

“ With mind distracted, never thinking, "Death is coming," To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life, And then to come out emptyit is a tragic error. (116) trans by Robert Thurman ”

- Huston Smith

“ Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman, the godwithin... underlying its whirlpool of transient feelings, emotions, and delusions is the selfluminous, abiding point of the transpersonal god. As the sun lights the world even when cloudcovered, “the Immutable is never seen but is the Witness; it is never heard but is the Hearer; it is never thought but is the Thinker; it is never known but is the Knower. There is no other witness but This, no other knower but This." from the Upanishad ”

- Huston Smith

“ Institutions are not pretty. Show me a pretty government. Healing is wonderful, but the American Medical Association? Learning is wonderful, but universities? The same is true for religion... religion is institutionalized spirituality. — Mother Jones November/December 1997. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The only power that can effect transformations of the order (of Jesus) is love. It remained for the 20th century to discover that locked within the atom is the energy of the sun itself. For this energy to be released, the atom must be bombarded from without. So too, locked in every human being is a store of love that partakes of the divine the imago dei, image of god…And it too can be activated only through bombardment, in its case, love’s bombardment. The process begins in infancy, where a mother’s initially unilateral loving smile awakens love in her baby and as coordination develops, elicits its answering smile… A loving human being is not produced by exhortations, rules and threats. Love can only take root in children when it comes to them initially and most importantly from nurturing parents. Ontogenetically speaking, love is an answering phenomenon. It is literally a response. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The disciples of Jesus “found themselves thinking that if divine goodness were to manifest itself in human form, this (he) is how it would behave… he invited people to see differently instead of telling them what to do or believe…he located the authority of his teaching in his hearer’s hearts, not in himself or Godasremoved. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Most of the book deals with things we already know yet never learn. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman, the godwithin... underlying its whirlpool of transient feelings, emotions, and delusions is the selfluminous, abiding point of the transpersonal god. As the sun lights the world even when cloudcovered, “the Immutable is never seen but is the Witness; it is never heard but is the Hearer; it is never thought but is the Thinker; it is never known but is the Knower. There is no other witness but This, no other knower but This." from the Upanishad ”

- Huston Smith

“ The only power that can effect transformations of the order (of Jesus) is love. It remained for the 20th century to discover that locked within the atom is the energy of the sun itself. For this energy to be released, the atom must be bombarded from without. So too, locked in every human being is a store of love that partakes of the divine the imago dei, image of god…And it too can be activated only through bombardment, in its case, love’s bombardment. The process begins in infancy, where a mother’s initially unilateral loving smile awakens love in her baby and as coordination develops, elicits its answering smile… A loving human being is not produced by exhortations, rules and threats. Love can only take root in children when it comes to them initially and most importantly from nurturing parents. Ontogenetically speaking, love is an answering phenomenon. It is literally a response. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The disciples of Jesus “found themselves thinking that if divine goodness were to manifest itself in human form, this (he) is how it would behave… he invited people to see differently instead of telling them what to do or believe…he located the authority of his teaching in his hearer’s hearts, not in himself or Godasremoved. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature. They are human creations, so we are responsible for them. ”

- Huston Smith

“ In nature, the emphasis is in what is rather than what ought to be. ”

- Huston Smith

“ We all carry it within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted, and cannot be destroyed. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Human intelligence is a reflection of the intelligence that produces everything. In knowing, we are simply extending the intelligence that comes to and constitutes us. We mimic the mind of God, so to speak. Or better, we continue and extend it. ”

- Huston Smith

“ In nature, the emphasis is in what is rather than what ought to be. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Exclusively oral cultures are unencumbered by dead knowledge, dead facts. Libraries, on the other hand, are full of them. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The most powerful moral influence is example. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The most powerful moral influence is example. ”

- Huston Smith

“ In nature, the emphasis is in what is rather than what ought to be. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The crisis that the world finds itself in as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools… ”

- Huston Smith

“ Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools… ”

- Huston Smith

“ A nation can assume that the addition of the words "under God" to its pledge of allegiance gives evidence that its citizens actually believe in God whereas all it really proves is that they believe in "believing" in God. ”

- Huston Smith

“ We all carry it within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted, and cannot be destroyed. ”

- Huston Smith

“ Rationalism and Newtonian science has lured us into dark woods, but a new metaphysics can rescue us. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The crisis that the world finds itself in as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The crisis that the world finds itself in as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature. They are human creations, so we are responsible for them. ”

- Huston Smith

“ The most powerful moral influence is example. ”

- Huston Smith
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