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Huston Smith Quotes

Powerful Huston Smith for Daily Growth

About Huston Smith

Huston Smith (1919-2016) was an American philosopher, religious thinker, and ethnographer, known for his exploration of world religions and their interconnections. Born on March 23, 1919, in San Francisco, California, Smith grew up in a family with deep roots in the Methodist Church but also open to other spiritual traditions. This eclectic background would later shape his scholarly pursuits. Smith received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Asian Studies from Harvard University. His academic career spanned over six decades, with positions at Mills College, MIT, Syracuse University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a professor emeritus. Smith's influential work "The Religions of Man" (1958) presented an overview of the world's major religions and their shared aspects, making it a seminal text in comparative religion studies. He is also known for his book "The World's Religions" (1958), which has been widely used as a textbook and remains influential today. Smith was particularly interested in the interplay between science and religion, exploring this theme in works such as "Beyond the Post-Modern Mind" (2006) and "The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy from Plato to Einstein" (1986). He was also a practicing Sufi and a member of the Order of Sufis, reflecting his lifelong interest in Eastern spirituality. Throughout his life, Smith sought to bridge the gap between the academic study of religion and personal spiritual practice, emphasizing the transformative power of religious experience. His work continues to influence scholars, students, and spiritual seekers around the world.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The essence of all world religions is one. Only their names and their forms differ."

This quote suggests that despite the superficial differences in their names, practices, and cultural expressions, the fundamental principles or core teachings of various world religions are essentially unified. It implies a shared universal spiritual truth that transcends religious labels and encourages interfaith understanding and respect.

"Spirituality is the art and science of religion, the creative interpretation of the timeless truths which religious traditions have handed down to us."

This quote by Huston Smith suggests that spirituality is a personal exploration and understanding of universal truths about life, death, and the meaning of existence, as conveyed through various religious traditions. It emphasizes the creative and interpretive nature of one's journey in spirituality, where individuals craft their unique perspectives based on the timeless teachings they receive from religious traditions. In essence, it underscores the importance of personal growth, self-expression, and understanding in our spiritual lives.

"Religion is not a private luxury but a social necessity."

This quote by Huston Smith emphasizes that religion plays a crucial role in society, rather than being an individual's personal preference or choice. Religion provides a framework for collective values, norms, and ethical guidelines, which help to maintain a sense of community, social order, and purpose. It helps individuals understand their place in the world, fosters empathy and compassion, and encourages cooperation and altruism among people. In essence, religion is essential for fostering social cohesion, promoting moral values, and guiding human behavior in a way that benefits society as a whole.

"The whole point of learning about religion is to learn something about yourself."

This quote by Huston Smith suggests that studying different religions isn't just about understanding religious beliefs and practices, but more importantly, it's a journey of self-discovery. It implies that as we delve into the various spiritual traditions, we uncover aspects of our own identity, values, and beliefs, thereby promoting personal growth and understanding. In essence, learning about religion can provide a mirror to reflect upon our individual perspectives and inner selves.

"To know God is to know oneself, to know oneself is to know God."

This quote by Huston Smith suggests a profound interconnectedness between the self and the divine. It implies that understanding one's own nature leads to gaining insights about the nature of the divine, and vice versa. In essence, it posits that personal growth, introspection, and self-awareness are pathways towards a deeper understanding of the universe and the divine. This perspective encourages exploration of both inner and outer realms in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

God has to speak to each person in their own language, in their own idioms. Take Spanish, Chinese. You can express the same thought, but to different people you have to use a different language. It's the same in religion.

- Huston Smith

Different People, Spanish, Chinese

The notion that Western religions are more rigid than those of Asia is overdrawn. Ours is the most permissive society history has ever known - almost the only thing that is forbidden now is to forbid - and Asian teachers and their progeny play up to this propensity by soft-pedaling Hinduism's, Buddhism's, Sufism's rules.

- Huston Smith

Play, The Only Thing, Almost, Propensity

There are wonderfully intrinsic moments when life makes sense, and doubts are banished as irrelevant in those moments. Of course, we can't stay in that state. We're not here to be blissed out all the time.

- Huston Smith

Here, Doubts, Makes, Irrelevant

Rationalism and Newtonian science has lured us into dark woods, but a new metaphysics can rescue us.

- Huston Smith

Science, Woods, New, Lured

Human intelligence is a reflection of the intelligence that produces everything. In knowing, we are simply extending the intelligence that comes to and constitutes us. We mimic the mind of God, so to speak. Or better, we continue and extend it.

- Huston Smith

Reflection, Mind, Better, Extend

When I read the Upanishads, which are part of Vedanta, I found a profundity of worldview that made my Christianity seem like third grade.

- Huston Smith

Which, Profundity, Read, Worldview

At the center of the religious life is a peculiar kind of joy, the prospect of a happy ending that blossoms from necessarily painful ordeals, the promise of human difficulties embraced and overcome.

- Huston Smith

Kind, Center, Religious, Blossoms

Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling, which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet.

- Huston Smith

Business, Telling, Which, Opens

It is commonly said and known that each civilization has its own religion. Now my claim is that if we look deeper, the different civilizations were brought into being by the different revelations.

- Huston Smith

Brought, Commonly, Claim

Science is like a flashlight in the hands of people living in a huge balloon. They can illuminate anything in the balloon, but cannot shine it outside the balloon to see where it is floating - or if it is floating at all.

- Huston Smith

Hands, Living, Balloon, Floating

You subtract Christianity from Huston Smith, and there is no Huston Smith left.

- Huston Smith

Left, Christianity, Smith, Subtract

The Chinese began with the assumption that the group is the fundamental unit of reality. Individuals? Sure, we can factor them out from their groups, but let us not think that they as individuals have any viability apart from their group.

- Huston Smith

Think, Sure, Began, Viability

So always, if we look back, concern for face-to-face morality, and its modern emphasis on justice as well, have historically evolved as religious issues.

- Huston Smith

Always, Religious, Evolved, Face-To-Face

Whether things turn out for the better depends on what we do. We ought not spend our time masterminding the future, but recognize our marching orders: to do the best we can for history and the planet.

- Huston Smith

Best, Depends, Planet, Orders

God is defined by Jesus but not confined to Jesus.

- Huston Smith

God, Jesus, Confined, Defined

The crisis that the world finds itself in as it swings on the hinge of a new millennium is located in something deeper than particular ways of organizing political systems and economies.

- Huston Smith

New, Crisis, Hinge, Located

The faith I was born into formed me.

- Huston Smith

Me, Born, I Was Born, Formed

The faith I was born into formed me. I come from a missionary family - I grew up in China - and in my case, my religious upbringing was positive. Of course, not everyone has this experience. I know many of my students are what I have come to think of as wounded Christians or wounded Jews.

- Huston Smith

Faith, Students, Religious, Formed

I'm not a chauvinist. I'm a universalist. I think that God imploded, like a spiritual big bang, to launch the eight civilizations that make up recorded history and the religions in those civilizations.

- Huston Smith

Think, Big, I Think, Universalist

The New Age movement looks like a mixed bag. I see much in it that seems good: It's optimistic; it's enthusiastic; it has the capacity for belief. On the debit side, I think one needs to distinguish between belief and credulity.

- Huston Smith

Bag, I See, I Think, Credulity

I've spent the last 50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've apprenticed myself to them and actually practiced each faith.

- Huston Smith

Faith, Years, Eight, Scholars

Walnuts have a shell, and they have a kernel. Religions are the same. They have an essence, but then they have a protective coating. This is not the only way to put it. But it's my way. So the kernels are the same. However, the shells are different.

- Huston Smith

Shells, However, Kernel, Protective

Science is empirical, all about physical senses that tell us about the world. But physical senses are not the only senses we have. Nobody has ever seen a thought. Nobody has ever seen a feeling. And yet thoughts and feelings are where we live our lives most immediately, and science cannot connect with that.

- Huston Smith

Thought, Tell, Senses, Feelings

I don't have any fear of death. I do, however, have an inordinate fear of becoming dependent on other people. To me, that's the severest test, not death.

- Huston Smith

Other, Becoming, However, Dependent

First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat.

- Huston Smith

Heat, Soul, Differences, First Of All

I am very orthodox in thinking that Jesus acted in his life the way God would have acted if God had assumed human form.

- Huston Smith

Very, Had, Am, Orthodox

I happen to be a Christian. I was brought up and drenched in that. I am very orthodox in thinking that Jesus acted in his life the way God would have acted if God had assumed human form.

- Huston Smith

Happen, Very, Brought, Orthodox

In nature, the emphasis is in what is rather than what ought to be.

- Huston Smith

Nature, Rather, Than, Ought

No one in human history has given as much thought to the interweaving of altered states of consciousness and religion as I have.

- Huston Smith

History, Thought, Given, Human History

The modern period adds social ethics to religions agenda, for we now realize that social structures are not like laws of nature. They are human creations, so we are responsible for them.

- Huston Smith

Laws, Social, Period, Agenda

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