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.

Heard made arrangements to have Smith meet the legendary author Aldous Huxley. "
"Institutions are not pretty. Watson Professor of Religion and DistinguiHuston Smithd Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status.

Huston Cummings Smith (born May 31 1919) is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions (originally titled The Religions of Man) has sold over two million copies and remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.