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Huston Smith Biography

Huston Cummings Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016) was a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions (originally titled The Religions of Man) sold over three million copies and remains a popular introduction to comparative religion. He died on December 30, 2016.

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Huston Smith Quotes

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.

Apprenticed, Eight, Profound, Religions, Years

It would be good if we bore one another's burdens.

Would Be, Burden, Be Good, Good, Burdens, Bore

Science can prove nothing about God, because God lies outside its province.

God, Lying, Prove, Province, Provinces

Beware of the differences that blind us to the unity that binds us.

Differences, Unity, Blind, Beware

I had assumed that Bush's seemingly inflexible policy to support Sharon was for political reasons of his getting elected. But as to whether he really believes his actions are going to hasten the day of the final conflict, I do not know.

Believe, Support, Political, Conflict, Final

With mind distracted, never thinking, "Death is coming," To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life, And then to come out empty--it is a tragic error. (116) trans by Robert Thurman

Errors, Life, Mind, Robert, Thinking

Not only is the destiny of the individual bound up with the entire Church; it is responsible for helping to sanctify the entire world of nature and history.

Church, Destiny, Helping, History, World

Entheogens are not to be lightly trifled with. . . However, if taken with the right attitude and in the proper setting, psychoactive drugs may produce religious experiences. . . . it is far less clear that they can produce religious lives.

Attitude, Entheogens, Religious, Taken, Trifled

We are free when we are not the slave of our impulses, but rather their master. Taking inward distance, we thus become the authors of our own dramas rather than characters in them.

Character, Distance, Drama, Impulses, Slave

I am profoundly moved and persuaded by the near-death experience.

Experience, Moved, Near Death, Near Death Experience, Persuaded, Profoundly

The faith I was born into formed me.

Born, Faith, Formed

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.

Religious, Joy, Promise, Difficulties, Happy

The Sufis say there are three ways to know fire - by hearing it described, by seeing it, or by being burned.

Fire, Sufis, Three, Way, Ways

Most mystics do not want to read religious wisdom; they want to be it. A postcard of a beautiful lake is not a beautiful lake, and Sufis may be defined as those who dance in the lake.

Beautiful, Lakes, Religious, Sufis, Wisdom

When historians look back on our century, they may remember it most, not for space travel or the release of nuclear energy, but as the time when the peoples of the world first came to take one another seriously.

Energy, Nuclear, Space, Take, Travel

Sex is the divine in its most available epiphany.

Available, Divine, Epiphany, Sex

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.

Knowing, Mind, Reflection, Speak

the heart of religion is not altered states but altered traits of character. For me, then, the test of a substance's religious worth or validity is not what kind of far-out experience it can produce, but is the life improved by its use? That's the test. Now, on that score, if you remove the "religious cocoon," the experiences don't seem to have much in the way of discernible, traceable effects.

Character, Heart, Religious, Remove, Validity, Way

If Rumi is the most-read poet in America today, Coleman Barks is in good part responsible. His ear for the truly divine madness in Rumi’s poetry is really remarkable.

America, Ears, Today, Madness

Religion is the call to confront reality; to master the self.

Reality, Self, Masters, Confront, Religion

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