Criss Jami Quotes

Even if there are instances in which it can be mistook by onlookers, never fool yourself into using misunderstood genius as an excuse to be a fool.

~ Criss Jami

In each generation, there is this certain wisdom of the ages that gets reburied in the fleeting drivels of modernity; then, like a diamond in the rough, it is yet again unearthed by a very small minority who not only restores it, but also polishes it and presents it as something new, something highly valuable and refreshing as understood by the current.

~ Criss Jami

Maturity is when you're able to say, 'It's not just them. It's me.

~ Criss Jami

The vanity of intelligence is that the intelligent man is often more committed to 'one-upping' his opponent than being truthful. When the idea of intelligence, rather than intelligence itself, becomes a staple, there is no wisdom in it.

~ Criss Jami

Honesty is not the same as truth. That is the obstacle of the notion of relative truths. I would like to put my trust in the lunatic. He is the one least concerned of what I think of him, the mark of an honest man. I can always depend on him to be completely honest in what he thinks and feels, about anything, no matter the consequences laid before him, however with no course of rationale, I cannot necessarily take his word for even the well-being of him in his own reality.

~ Criss Jami

When disinformation is running rampant, there are two ignorances that may emerge: the one is actually positive, a sort of pure and intentional emptying of the mind; but the other is of course negative and clogged and polluted.

~ Criss Jami

Some people are ignorant of the world but educated in Scripture, and are therefore prone to missing the relevance of Scripture - these sometimes, later, amidst life's challenges and doubts, turn from the faith; other people are ignorant of Scripture but educated in the world, and are therefore prone to missing the truth of Scripture - they are often those who ridicule the faith. The apologist stands somewhere in the center. He articulates where some are prone to understanding the truth in beauty, others the beauty in truth - that of a spiritual Creator in relation to his scientific creation.

~ Criss Jami

The disruption of science is one which abandons the method and seeks to conquer grounds outside its territory. It is not at all religion but this pseudo-science that is the enemy of science.

~ Criss Jami

The thing about stereotyping is it's usually just throwing rocks into a crowd hoping to hit somebody who deserves it.

~ Criss Jami

My heart goes out to some of those rather hostile yet highly intelligent individuals who may see problems really because they have solutions. That hostility is learned in defense; not offense. An often stubborn and prideful world, in its self-destructive, temporary bliss of ignorance, may be violently resistant to the watchful mind.

~ Criss Jami

It is never just disagreement but always intellectual dishonesty that is the apologist's worst enemy. And its apprentice is ignorance.

~ Criss Jami

Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.

~ Criss Jami

The only thing more frustrating than slanderers is those foolish enough to listen to them.

~ Criss Jami

The denial of truth does not harm the Truth, it only harms that which denies the Truth.

~ Criss Jami

With enough mental gymnastics, just about any fact can become misshapen in favor to one's confirmation bias.

~ Criss Jami

It is not so much freedom of speech but the right to truth that great men protect.

~ Criss Jami

God gives His deepest discernment and sharpest marksmanship to men who aim to expose His truth before an enemy's lies.

~ Criss Jami

I still believe that many Americans have a deep longing for that glorious moment when a sermon is more Biblical than American.

~ Criss Jami

There is a difference between criticizing people and criticizing a people's uninformed ideals. That is, unless one defines himself or others by their ideals, then he is offended, and usually offended secretly. Because oddly enough, this person is the same person quickest to resort to dismissive name-calling, such as 'bigot' or 'zealot'. And oddly enough, he is always the one, the 'open-minded' one, who adamantly protests for, not only himself, but others not to listen to any type of scholarly theological truth inherently for the sake of his own personal, moral beliefs.

~ Criss Jami

One of the Christian's biggest fears is appearing 'too Christian'. God forbid, because that's often characterized as god-awful! We want to be one, but without being 'one of them'.

~ Criss Jami

There is such a thing as righteous judgment, but it seems that lately the word 'judgment' has become a curse word, period. The issue isn't whether or not we're insightful enough to avoid being judgmental, but whether or not we're secure enough to accept being judged. It is inevitable for every conscious human being to judge. It may spring from insight and experience and sincerity, and in such cases, it is quite beneficial on the receiving end.

~ Criss Jami

Joy, like love, is an impenetrable, God-given state of being. The distinctions between joy and happiness and love and affection are important ones under the notion that happiness is an 'iffy' emotion, a highly dependent feeling both aroused and destroyed by external conditions apart from God. And the distinction between love and affection is parallel to such.

~ Criss Jami

A man who loves others based solely on how they make him feel, or what they do for him, is really not loving others at all - but loving only himself.

~ Criss Jami

Today's zealots are mostly those pretending to be anti-religious.

~ Criss Jami

There is nothing new under the sun but that of the Son. Man's rebellion against God has always been because he would rather fall in pride than rise in humility.

~ Criss Jami

The wrong approaches to faith and to skepticism are equally detrimental to the path. For the former declares its answers too soon and is later found false, the latter rejects sound answers altogether and hashes itself useless.

~ Criss Jami

If you assume that the new - and simply because it's new - is always to be better than the old, chances are you've never known anything valuable.

~ Criss Jami

Generally, there is a lot of truth value in stepping back, observing, then logically generalizing the extremes of what you see.

~ Criss Jami

God's judgment is not like man's judgment. It is not a suspension of His Love but an extension of His Love. His justice is always righteous, so His judgment is always Love.

~ Criss Jami

Nothing amuses people more than a cocky guy who starts losing.

~ Criss Jami

An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.

~ Criss Jami

God is so omnipotent yet man so impotent, the Divine masterpiece was not even in creating the universe, but in making sin boring to sinners.

~ 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

One is not necessarily made self-centered because he is foolish, but one is very often made foolish because he is self-centered.

~ Criss Jami

The more we love God, the more unpleasant sin becomes.

~ Criss Jami

Excuses will become self-refuting. No man who does not believe that Jesus is the perfect, sinless Son of God can, in his desperation and love for sin, reasonably use and misconstrue Jesus' words that unless a Christian is perfect, then that Christian cannot judge sin. Otherwise this non-believer is unconsciously entertaining a belief that Jesus, unlike any other man to ever live, was indeed perfect and sinless in His judgments and therefore that Christian is supposed to be like Him.

~ Criss Jami

Humility is, in a sense, admitting how egotistical you are.

~ Criss Jami

Great artists are a little too gifted to be bound by boxes and labels, and in saying that, the label 'artist' is to be used lightly.

~ Criss Jami

It often seems as though the silent, humble servant is secretly wiser and more discerning than the haughty master; yet through dutiful (and sometimes insecure) surrender he continues to serve and carry out petty orders in loyal acquiescence.

~ Criss Jami

The height of cleverness is in one's ability to be very clever without seeming clever at all.

~ Criss Jami