Authors — Quotes

Criss Jami Quotes: 151

To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.
Venus in Arms
The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.
Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths.
Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.
Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.
Killosophy
When you're the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.
Killosophy
If love is blind, then maybe a blind person that loves has a greater understanding of it.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
At first, they'll only dislike what you say, but the more correct you start sounding the more they'll dislike you.
Killosophy
A lonely day is God's way of saying that he wants to spend some quality time with you.
Killosophy
Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.
Killosophy
The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
Killosophy
Good works is giving to the poor and the helpless, but divine works is showing them their worth to the One who matters.
Killosophy
The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.
Killosophy
When a poet digs himself into a hole, he doesn't climb out. He digs deeper, enjoys the scenery, and comes out the other side enlightened.
Venus in Arms
The reality of loving God is loving him like he's a Superhero who actually saved you from stuff rather than a Santa Claus who merely gave you some stuff.
Killosophy
Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.
Killosophy
Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.
Venus in Arms
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.
Killosophy
Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don't laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions.
Killosophy
I don't pretend to know everything; I just only speak on matters I know I'll win.
Killosophy
A young outcast will often feel that there is something wrong with himself, but as he gets older, grows more confident in who he is, he will adapt, he will begin to feel that there is something wrong with everyone else.
Killosophy
You are evidence of your mother's strength, especially if you are a rebellious knucklehead and regardless she has always maintained her sanity.
Killosophy
Love is as simple as the absence of self given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions.
Venus in Arms
A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.
Killosophy
To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.
Venus in Arms
Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back.
Venus in Arms
In order to share one's true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still.
Venus in Arms
I'm convinced that most men don't know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man's atrocities, but wouldn't dream of imprisoning a mother for her son's crime?
Killosophy
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?
Killosophy
There's nothing more contagious than the laughter of young children; it doesn't even have to matter what they're laughing about.
Killosophy
I will never deny that life isn't fair. It seems as though when a woman leaves a man she is strong and independent, but when a man leaves a woman he is a pig and a jerk.
Killosophy
It is not true that everyone is special. It is true that everyone was once special and still possesses the ability to recover it.
Killosophy
I think a lot of psychopaths are just geniuses who drove so fast that they lost control.
Killosophy
Don't change your mind just because people are offended; change your mind if you're wrong.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
The common man prays, 'I want a cookie right now!' And God responds, 'If you'd listen to what I say, tomorrow it will bring you 100 cookies.
Killosophy
The barrier during self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one's own accord - it feels great - but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop.
Killosophy
There's no need to curse God if you're an ugly duckling. He chooses those strong enough to endure it so that they can guide others who've felt the same.
Killosophy
If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.
Killosophy
As Aristotle said, 'Excellence is a habit.' I would say furthermore that excellence is made constant through the feeling that comes right after one has completed a work which he himself finds undeniably awe-inspiring. He only wants to relax until he's ready to renew such a feeling all over again because to him, all else has become absolutely trivial.
Killosophy
I think there is a song out there to describe just about any situation.
Killosophy
Absurdity is the ecstasy of intellectualism.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
God tests, but he does not tempt.
Killosophy
Emotion is always multiplied in the art of a person who doesn't really show much emotion. It once expanded deep within his hidden soul, and following the downplay his audience is blown away.
Killosophy
Tell me that the purpose of life is to have fun, and without a care in the world I'll begin wreaking havoc on everything I pass. Now that's what I call pure, honest fun.
Killosophy
Create with the heart; build with the mind.
Killosophy
You can't let the truth bring out the worst and let it get the best of you.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Most men either compromise or drop their greatest talents and start running after, what they perceive to be, a more reasonable success, and somewhere in between they end up with a discontented settlement. Safety is indeed stability, but it is not progression.
Killosophy
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.
Venus in Arms
The devil's happy when the critics run you off.
Venus in Arms
Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both.
Killosophy
One may not always know his purpose until his only option is to monopolize in what he truly excels at. He grows weary of hearing the answer 'no' time and time again, so he turns to and cultivates, monopolizes in his one talent which others cannot possibly subdue. Then, beyond the crowds of criticism and rejection, the right people recognize his talent - among them he finds his stage.
Killosophy
It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity.
Killosophy
The humble sinner will sometimes be interpreted as one of the filthiest in the eyes of man yet immersed in the eyes of God, and this is due to the volition of honesty regarding his own corruption.
Killosophy
Drunken men give some of the best pep talks.
Killosophy
Senses of humor define people, as factions, deeper rooted than religious or political opinions. When carrying out everyday tasks, opinions are rather easy to set aside, but those whom a person shares a sense of humor with are his closest friends. They are always there to make the biggest influence.
Killosophy
Whenever I think of something but can't think of what it was I was thinking of, I can't stop thinking until I think I'm thinking of it again. I think I think too much.
Killosophy
God favors men and women who delight in being made worthy of happiness before the happiness itself.
Killosophy
The artist lives to have stories to tell and to learn to tell them well.
Killosophy
Soar with wit. Conquer with dignity. Handle with care.
Killosophy
Ultimate prosperity is one's value within. It takes a man of depth, morality, and charm to be envied yet without a sign of wealth or romance. A passion to prove such inner worth is his permission to achieve whatever he desires.
Killosophy
When most of the greatest individuals in history were misunderstood and you've spent so much of your own adult life misunderstood, you can't help but believe that the majority of people know very little worth knowing.
Killosophy
In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. The basket overflows; people get overwhelmed; the eye of the storm is not so much what goes on in the world, it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest, and react to what goes on.
Venus in Arms
The best ideas will eat at you for days, maybe even weeks, until something, some incident, some impulse, triggers you to finally express them.
Killosophy
Ask anyone and they'll most likely say their family is crazy, and if they don't say their family is crazy, their friends are crazy. That's because everyone is crazy after taking the mask off. People are most themselves when not really trying to fit in, when either alone or around those already closest to them, and that is crazy.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
The whole war between the atheist and the theist comes down to this: the atheist believes a 'what' created the universe; the theist believes a 'who' created the universe.
Killosophy
Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank.
Killosophy
I do not care about happiness simply because I believe that joy is something worth fighting for.
Killosophy
We are often taught to look for the beauty in all things, so in finding it, the layman asks the philosopher while the philosopher asks the photographer.
Killosophy
The manlier you are, the harder it is to understand what a woman wants: there is not a hint of female brain in you.
Killosophy
Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.
Killosophy
Learning isn't acquiring knowledge so much as it is trimming information that has already been acquired.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
Every man has a specific skill, whether it is discovered or not, that more readily and naturally comes to him than it would to another, and his own should be sought and polished. He excels best in his niche - originality loses its authenticity in one's efforts to obtain originality.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
To be a philosopher, just reverse everything you have ever been told...and have a sense of humor doing it.
Killosophy
Those who live as though God sets the rules are not going by their own rules. That is the self-sacrifice, or selflessness, that peace more often than not requires. Those who insist on going by their own rules cannot make that sacrifice. They are the steady adherents of (global) conflict because they are forever fighting both themselves and others to do whatever they think that they want to do.
Killosophy
It's a good sign but rare instance when, in a relationship, you find that the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. A sturdy bond delights in that degree of youthful intrigue. Love loves its youth.
Killosophy
Songwriting and poetry are so commonly birthed from underdogs because one can make even the ugliest situations admirable, or more beautiful than the beautiful situations - they are the most graceful media in which the lines of society are distorted.
Killosophy
Seemingly minor yet persistent things penetrate the mind over time making it difficult to ever realize the impact; hence, though quite unfortunate, the most dangerous forms of corruption are those that are subtle and below the radar.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
Old words are reborn with new faces.
Killosophy
Intelligence entails a strong mind, but genius entails a heart of a lion in tune with a strong mind.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
I only seem negative to the fortunate. That's because I show the less fortunate that they aren't less fortunate after all.
Killosophy
A writer is one who communicates ideas and emotions people want to communicate but aren't quite sure how, or even if, they should communicate them.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
Happiness is good, but well-overrated: what we hate most are the very motivators that put us in gear. A man drifts along with little to contribute until something agitates him enough to make a difference, whether for himself or for his communities.
Killosophy
In God's eyes, a man who teaches one truth and nothing else is more righteous than a man who teaches a million truths and one lie.
Killosophy
I believe in evolution in the sense that a short-tempered man is the successor of a crybaby.
Killosophy
Bad luck with women is a determined man's road to success. For every affliction, he makes, out of indignation, yet another advancement in order to exceed the man that the woman chose over him. This goes to show that great men are made great because they once learned how to fight the feeling of rejection.
Venus in Arms
I've come to the point where I never feel the need to stop and evaluate whether or not I am happy. I'm just 'being', and without question, by default, it works.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless inquiry is truly all it takes to remind us that we don't know as much as we think we know.
Killosophy
Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations.
Venus in Arms
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.
Killosophy
A common mistake we make is that we look for God in places where we ourselves wish to find him, yet even in the physical reality this is a complete failure. For example, if you lost your car keys, you would not search where you want to search, you would search where you must in order to find them.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
A sign of a lover of wisdom is his delight in not running his mouth about things he doesn't know.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Love tames the benumbed beast. A man is put to use regarding a woman's physical safety, but a woman is put to use regarding a man's mental safety.
Killosophy
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.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
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.
Killosophy
Tolerance! The virtue that makes one bite his tongue so that he can tear out his hair.
Killosophy
Faithfulness imparts God's reason for all circumstances. No matter what the world says, losing is no longer an option.
Venus in Arms
In a general sense, I admit to valuing the worldviews of men under the age of 40 and women over the age of 30.
Killosophy
I enjoy melancholic music and art. They take me to places I don't normally get to go.
Killosophy
I always make sure that the world will prove me right. It gives me the freedom to contradict myself.
Killosophy
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.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
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.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
You can't be a rebel without the scars that come with it. Truth is, some days scars are just as ugly as they are beautiful.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
I would rather my descendants have greater abilities and a greater knowledge of the love of Christ than I do, much like standing on one's shoulders in order to get a clearer view of the valley.
Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile
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.
Killosophy
To ask, 'How do you do it?' is already starting off on the wrong foot. When reaching for the stars, there does not have to be a 'how' if there is a big enough 'why'.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Great minds think alike because a greater Mind is thinking through them.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
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.
Killosophy
The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not.
Killosophy
The power of hope! Even a lack of ambition can, for a time, pay off as a necessary facet, as long as hope outweighs it.
Killosophy
Women show men beauty in things beyond their ambitions. Women tell men to stop and smell the roses.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
Imagination doesn't always make you long for what you cannot have, but rather thrive in what you do not have.
Killosophy
Peaceful disputes are maintained when men sincerely believe that they are morally, logically correct about the issues at hand. It is when neither side is really certain that wars are instigated.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
When you mature in your relationship with God you realize how suffering and patience are like eating your spiritual vegetables.
Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
When we look for success, it should be for the sole purpose of boasting sincerely in Christ. There's no other reason for it. Success is only worth it when the more intense it gets for you, the more you find yourself bragging for his glory rather than your own.
Killosophy
Christians walk as strangers in the world: They are untamed. They are free. To persevere with love, yet untamed by man, is often what leaves that open space for divine revelation when God so wills.
Killosophy
The typical atheist rebels against God as a teenager rebels against his parents. When his own desires or standards are not fulfilled in the way that he sees fit, he, in revolt, storms out of the house in denial of the Word of God and in scrutiny of a great deal of those who stand by the Word of God. The epithet 'Heavenly Father' is a grand reflection, a relation to that of human nature.
Killosophy
Unlike wealth, there is an infinite value in legacy.
Killosophy
Credentials are like potential energy, the compliments of a name on paper, in documents, word of mouth, but faith is like kinetic energy, the motion and the force that which is witnessed. Hence in the end it is the faith rather than the credentials that really takes you places.
Killosophy
I'd rather strive for the kind of interview where instead of me asking to introduce myself to society, society asks me to introduce myself to society.
Killosophy
The creation of man is evidence for the love of God, the preservation of man is evidence for the patience of God, and Christ is evidence for the forgiveness of God. It is when we are wrapped up in our own little peeves that we begin to displace His benevolence with malevolence.
Killosophy
With no positivity, there is no hope; with no negativity, there is no improvement.
Healology
For those constantly full of joy, they sometimes feel a little guilty for always feeling so good. That guilt is compassion: it flies in with an attempt to share one's joy with others who do not have it.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
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.
Killosophy
There's more to logic than identifying logical fallacies.
Killosophy
In the end, only God can see the heart of an individual and distinguish the difference between legalistic deadweight and the passion of holy solemnity.
Killosophy
Gloating is a superficial glowing, floating is an idle flowing, and bloatedness is the paralysis of blowing up; because silent movement results in loud victories.
Killosophy
Religion, like science, is only noteworthy when it emphasizes a matter of what is true rather than whose belief is greater or lesser or which deity works for whom. Sincere religion and tested science are similar in that their assertions can be argued logically and objectively; otherwise, we get false cults and babble.
Killosophy
We're very familiar with the idea that some things are so complex they're beyond our comprehension. This not only keeps us solving and experimenting but also distracted. Many things are really so simple we can't see them under our big noses.
Killosophy
As followers of Christ, we are to be careful not to remain victims of the many cultural presuppositions of who he is, and what he teaches, insofar as taking for granted our own caricatures of him. Let it boil in both mind and heart the question, 'If Jesus were to appear today, how many of us would actually recognize him and his teachings (or would it simply be a recount of his first visit)?
Killosophy
There's sometimes a tugging feeling you get to push further when you aren't being challenged enough or when things get too comfortable.
Killosophy
When comprehending how different people truly are, you also comprehend the absolute necessity of some divine authority.
Killosophy
It's simple, it's not that simple; or life is simple, but the things in it are not. When a man does not understand it, he tends to inflate it. When he does, he tends to deflate it. In the end, neither images are fully accurate.
Killosophy
Man was created to glorify God. Now, that may encompass other things which God has planned for each man, but essentially, man was created to glorify God.
Killosophy
The petty man wants to use God for himself; the ambitious man wants God to use him for God.
Healology
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.
Healology
To respect a mystery is to make way for the answer.
If your doctrine changed for the better yet your character changed for the worse, you changed for the worse.
We must not allow our pride to be the motivation behind our apologetics; rather, philoverity, the love of truth must be the full and complete motivation. For pride corrupts truth.