Criss Jami Quotes

One of the greatest gifts from God is the eternal perspective. It is a level of fearlessness, a level of understanding where one can experience even emotional harmony with God.

To me it seems that too many young women of this time share the same creed. 'Live, laugh, love, be nothing but happy, experience everything, et cetera et cetera.' How monotonous, how useless this becomes. What about the honors of Joan of Arc, Beauvoir, Stowe, Xena, Princess Leia, or women that would truly fight for something other than just their own emotions?

A sign of power in a man is not only when people follow what he suggests, but also when people make a conscious effort to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.

I claim neither liberalism nor conservatism - one tends to be airheaded while the other tends to be brickheaded.

Never rebel for the sake of rebelling, but always rebel for the sake of truth.

Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.

The love of conflict is most evident when opposing forces join sides to defeat the peacemaker.

Yes, be different, but not for the vanities of being different.

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

From recovery to rags and rags to recovery symbolizes art - a perfect compilation of human imperfections.

For the believer, humility is honesty about one's greatest flaws to a degree in which he fearless about truly appearing less righteous than another.

If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place.

When good people consider you the bad guy, you develop a heart to help the bad ones. You actually understand them.

I never feel unsafe except for when the majority is on my side.

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

It's not at all hard to understand a person; it's only hard to listen without bias

The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation.

The artist lives to have stories to tell and to learn to tell them well.

Love does not dwell on how much one receives in return. If there is ever any balance in love, it is in a contest of who can love who more.

You are evidence of your mother's strength, especially if you are a rebellious knucklehead and regardless she has always maintained her sanity.

When I look at a person, I see a person - not a rank, not a class, not a title.

It is easier for one to take risks and to chase his dreams with a mindset that he has nothing to lose. In this lies the immense passion, the great advantage of avoiding a materialistic, pleasure-filled way of life.

The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.

Like most arts, the link between the mind and the pen can chain you like an enslaved workaholic. Even on an intended vacation you suddenly have this killer urge to record whatever the vacation may teach.

Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists.

I am not sure if women are attracted to genius. Can you imagine the wise wizard winning the woman over the gallant swordsman? It seems rather otherworldly in more ways than one.

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

Let's not grow with our roots in the ground.

The devil's happy when the critics run you off.

Creative people are often found either disagreeable or intimidating by mediocrities.

Christ delves far beyond the means of superficiality, not simply because of his immaculate love, but also because he considers the distinct cases of each individual rather than withholding a broadened perception by use of stereotypes.

Love may be harder to find in some people, but when they do love you know it must be something marvelous.

I am thankful when I am hungry because then I know that when I eat, the food will taste better. Life has taught me that my true contentment rests in hope, and the pleasure itself is secondary. It is self-awareness, not happiness, that maintains peace.

When you're socially awkward, you're isolated more than usual, and when you're isolated more than usual, your creativity is less compromised by what has already been said and done. All your hope in life starts to depend on your craft, so you try to perfect it. One reason I stay isolated more than the average person is to keep my creativity as fierce as possible. Being the odd one out may have its temporary disadvantages, but more importantly, it has its permanent advantages.

I am a fan of overdoing something, but not running it into the ground. They are complete opposites with only a fine line separating them.

Disasters work like alarm clocks to the world, hence God allows them. They are shouting, 'Wake up! Love! Pray!

I believe in evolution in the sense that a short-tempered man is the successor of a crybaby.

The ultimate story of success: When a nobody, who has never once in his entire life known the feeling of being remembered or respected, suddenly snaps and becomes a world dictator. On one hand it sounds just, but on the other, it illustrates the reason why a prosperity message has and needs its limitations.

The humble ones are always learning and improving, and their secret is always that it's a secret.

All individuals have moral deficiencies, and when introducing these to reality one not only strengthens himself but also the confidence of others in the human exigency for Christ due to a reflection throughout the body of Christ.

Simply minding one's own business is more offensive than being intrusive. Without ever saying a word one can make a person feel less-than.

There is a master way with words that cannot be learned but instead developed: a deaf man develops exceptional vision, a blind man exceptional hearing, a silent man, when given a piece of paper.

Love without humility results in the inclination to act as everyone's parent, humility without love results in the need to be everyone's child, and love with humility results in the desire to be a friend.

I find it a challenge to cooperate in a society where it's considered moral to critique a résumé yet immoral to critique morality.

Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations.

I think there is a song out there to describe just about any situation.

Constantly stopping to explain oneself may expand into a frustrating burden for the rare individual, so ceasing to do so is like finally dropping the weights and sprinting towards his goals. Those who insincerely misunderstand, who intentionally distort the motives of a pure-intentioned individual, then, no longer have the opportunity to block his path; instead, they are the ones left to stand on the sidelines shouting frustratedly in the wind of his trail.

In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.