Criss Jami Quotes

I cannot encourage any fabrication even for the sake of making people feel good. If I were to fabricate consciously and knowingly, I would not only be ordaining myself their enemy, but also ordaining myself God's enemy.

~ Criss Jami

Our enemies are quite good for relentlessly keeping us sharp and on our toes. This especially goes for sincere philosophers. They use their enemies to challenge their arguments so that they can know the weak points in their own reasoning and how to argue for and strengthen their position. There are just none like one's enemies to always look for his mistakes and do it harder than anyone else.

~ Criss Jami

There's more to logic than identifying logical fallacies.

~ Criss Jami

For wordsmiths and masters of words, without necessarily being harsh with words, the words have a tendency to shoot straight to the hearts of people, and this either deeply touches them or deeply angers them. Like the apostles in all their loving controversies are those who are masters of words while combining this gift with truth.

~ Criss Jami

It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about.

~ Criss Jami

Some concepts are so incredibly risky they take an honest fool to try to articulate them.

~ Criss Jami

The theistic philosopher has a tendency to devalue insufficient worldviews, ideologies, and quite often common sense for the greater good, and in such cases, one should not be discouraged when seen as a bad guy. If he stresses over man's perception of a righteous heart, then he has given his heart to man.

~ Criss Jami

The best ideas will eat at you for days, maybe even weeks, until something, some incident, some impulse, triggers you to finally express them.

~ Criss Jami

With a philosophy education, one can infuriate his peers, intimidate his date, think of obscure, unreliable ways to make money, and never regret a thing.

~ Criss Jami

It is never ridicule, but a compliment, that knocks a philosopher off his feet. He is already positioned for every possible counter-attack, counter-argument, and retort...only to find a big bear hug coming his way.

~ Criss Jami

In essence I find that the foundation of modern conservatism is driven by a clinging to God in fear of the world, whereas the foundation of modern liberalism is a clinging to the world in fear of God; albeit, the true foundation should be one's clinging to God in fear of God.

~ Criss Jami

I only seem negative to the fortunate. That's because I show the less fortunate that they aren't less fortunate after all.

~ Criss Jami

If you use a philosophy education well, you can get your foot in the door of any industry you please. Industries are like the blossoms on a tree while philosophy is the trunk - it holds the tree together, but it often goes unnoticed.

~ Criss Jami

To be a philosopher, just reverse everything you have ever been told...and have a sense of humor doing it.

~ Criss Jami

One does not have to be a philosopher to be a successful artist, but he does have to be an artist to be a successful philosopher. His nature is to view the world in an unpredictable albeit useful light.

~ Criss Jami

It is the philosophers, theologians, and evangelists who are said to be filled with pride and bigotry due to the strong convictions that they represent. On the contrary, teachings can be either taken or dismissed; whereas voting is the only thing the average person can do to force everyone to live how they would prefer. A simple vote is among the largest yet most acceptable forms of bigotry, and that is because people play the card only when they feel that in doing so it conveniences themselves.

~ Criss Jami

Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths.

~ Criss Jami

At first, they'll only dislike what you say, but the more correct you start sounding the more they'll dislike you.

~ Criss Jami

It's not about going around trying to stir up trouble. As long as you're honest and you articulate what you believe to be true, somebody somewhere will become your enemy whether you like it or not.

~ Criss Jami

A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.

~ Criss Jami

Don't change your mind just because people are offended, change your mind if you're wrong.

~ Criss Jami

Deceit for personal gain is one of history's most recurring crimes. Man's first step towards change would be thinking, counter-arguing, re-thinking, twisting, straightening, perfecting, then believing every original idea he intends to make public before making it public. There is always an angle from which an absolute truth may appear askew just as there is always a personal emotion, or a personal agenda, which alienates the ultimate good of mankind.

~ Criss Jami

You can't let the truth bring out the worst and let it get the best of you.

~ Criss Jami

Always seek justice, but love only mercy. To love justice and hate mercy is but a doorway to more injustice.

~ Criss Jami

I always make sure that the world will prove me right. It gives me the freedom to contradict myself.

~ Criss Jami

Tolerance! The virtue that makes one bite his tongue so that he can tear out his hair.

~ Criss Jami

Cleverness isn't always true nor is the truth always clever.

~ Criss Jami

Who you are in public is a test of your conviction; who you are in private, integrity.

~ Criss Jami

Of course, in our train of thought, we would all like to think we're on the right track, or at least the same railroad company as the right track.

~ Criss Jami

Friends ask you questions, enemies question you.

~ Criss Jami

Beware: open-mindedness will often say, 'Everything is permissible except a sharp opinion.

~ Criss Jami

There was a time when skepticism was an act of rebellion. Since to a degree I both believe in evolution and have faith, I can only conclude that, as prophesied, to have faith will someday be an act of rebellion.

~ Criss Jami

Just as some people may conceal their own sinfulness thus seeming better than the norm, others expose their own sinfulness thus seeming worse than the norm.

~ Criss Jami

Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness.

~ Criss Jami

It is debatable whether blind faith is truly faith at all. Faith is the perceptive gray area where scientific facts meet an individual's experiential truths - the extreme of the former is left feeling in the dark whereas the latter is caught blinded by the light. By proper scientific method, it is intellectually dishonest for me to declare the existence of God with utmost certainty, but to my individual spirit, I would be intellectually dishonest to deny the existence of God even for a second. This leaves the best of both worlds, as the believer is called to be able to give reasons for his faith, a deviation from mere fantasy.

~ Criss Jami

As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, 'Will I still believe this a week from now, or months, or even years?

~ Criss Jami

It always seems as though the definition of love will remain debatable by an opinionated world.

~ Criss Jami

Take lightly what you hear about individuals. We need not distort trust for our paltry little political agendas. We tend to trust soulless, carried information more than we trust soulful human beings; but really most people aren't so bad once you sit down and have an honest, one-on-one conversation with them, once, with an open heart, you listen to their explanations as to why they act the way they act, or say what they say, or do what they do.

~ Criss Jami

When we begin to reflect Christ, the Bible, when more understood as being centered around Christ, seems to be potentially every man's biography regarding God's promised experiences and truth for him - his individual, unique path of humbling oneself before the Lord and then being exalted by the Lord back into his true and righteous personhood. Many followers may speak of it merely to try to change other people (before changing themselves), but the prophets speak of it as a living word which miraculously tells their very own experiences.

~ Criss Jami

If it's true what is said, that only the wise discover the wise, then it must also be true that the lone wolf symbolizes either the biggest fool on the planet or the biggest Einstein on the planet.

~ Criss Jami