#is

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements. ↗

— Joshua Reynolds

#character #found #his #man #out

Islam is a religion of success. Unlike Christianity, which has as its main image, in the west at least, a man dying in a devastating, disgraceful, helpless death. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#death #devastating #disgraceful #dying #helpless

After I left the convent, for 15 years I was worn out with religion, I wanted nothing whatever to do with it. I felt disgusted with it. If I saw someone reading a religious book on a train, I'd think, how awful. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#awful #book #convent #disgusted #felt

Buddhists talk about nirvana in very much the same terms as monotheists describe God. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#buddhists #describe #god #much #nirvana

Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people? ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#disapprove #having #how #i #important

Even before 9/11 I was gripped by a sense of dread: our lack of criticism about what we were doing in the Middle East - the slagging off of a whole religious tradition. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#before #criticism #doing #dread #east

In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left home, pilgrims were not permitted to carry weapons, to swat an insect or speak an angry word, a discipline that introduced them to a new way of living. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#any #carry #city #discipline #forbidden

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#ego #egotism #endorse #give #identity

The first person to promulgate the Golden Rule, which was the bedrock of this empathic spirituality, was Confucius 500 years before Christ. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#before #christ #confucius #first #golden

The hajj is one of the five essential practices of Islam; when they make the pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims ritually act out the central principles of their faith. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#central #essential #faith #five #islam