300 Quotes by Karen Armstrong

Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.

I'm seeking to make sense of life, looking for its meaning and how we can have a better humanity.

I believe in holiness and sacredness in other people. It doesn't mean that the clouds part and I see God. That's a juvenile way of thinking about it.

If we could view Muhammad as we do any other important historical figure we would surely consider him to be one of the greatest geniuses the world has known.

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the true test of spirituality. But there have always have been those who'd rather put easier goals, like doctrine conformity, in place.

It's quite common for a Sufi mystic to cry in ecstasy that he's neither a Jew, a Christian, nor a Muslim. He is at home equally in a synagogue, a mosque, a temple, or a church because when one's glimpsed the divine, one's left these man-made distinctions behind.

I like silence; I'm a gregarious loner and without the solitude, I lose my gregariousness.

My greatest solace is my study. If I am deprived of my study, I can become lost, unhappy and unhinged.

Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day.