Criss Quotes

Mankind, in all his lusts, punishes himself. The gods have to do very little. ~ Criss Jami

Isi is fast becoming my universe. We share the common denominator of completely understanding each other; and being able to feel the sincere perceptive acceptance of our individual composition. It is a connection I can't believe I was willing to live without. But with the experience now well within my reach, I'm salivating to secure it with both hands and hold onto it; like an oxygen mask delivering me life saving breaths, while I navigate the cavernous depths of an ocean of emotion.
~Silas Tayte, Fake.~ ~ Criss Copp

I'm incredibly anal about everything that I do. ~ Darren Criss

I want people to know that there is nothing more badass than being yourself. ~ Darren Criss

Men seek a great deal, but fatally close, albeit very different, is one's pride in proving oneself right with one's zeal for finding the truth. ~ Criss Jami

Static people love to compensate for their inability to change themselves by always trying to change the world. ~ Criss Jami

In their minds, it seems as though people don't often have the same answers, but in their hearts, they do very frequently have the same questions. ~ Criss Jami

Growing up I often wondered how the world would be today if, since the beginning of human life, every person acted as I did. ~ Criss Jami

From time to time
I once wondered how one wanders from time to time
And think up the paradox line
Speak of Epoch's crime
Oh I lied, it hasn't happened yet
But bet you better believe it's such a habit that
I just said that in a past mindset ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

If a man cannot understand the beauty of life, it is probably because life never understood the beauty in him. ~ 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

God writes love and speaks poetry. ~ Criss Jami

One is not necessarily made self-centered because he is foolish, but one is very often made foolish because he is self-centered. ~ Criss Jami

A man of God has many brothers. He is a wounded soldier - he is familiar with the pain one feels in his heart, as a close and loving brother, when a brother falls victim of evil men or turns to evil desires (the latter sometimes even betrayal). Because of this, too, he is and must be well-acquainted with and trained in the strengths of hope and the gentleness of forgiveness and mercy. ~ Criss Jami

The American Public is who I'm interested in. Ultimately, if they think I'm good and they think I'm entertaining that's all that matters. ~ Criss Angel

...And maybe one day you will wake up as an infant in a completely different universe, and your entire life thus far was just one big dream. ~ Criss Jami

Emotions bleed where love frowns and despair smiles
My home is within the core
The center of this place, it lays down my heart for love
My love's (in) the Center of War ~ Criss Jami

I mean, part of me would love to be a fat tenured professor of theater someday. ~ Darren Criss

Symptomatic of this rural-urban identity crisis is our eager embrace of a recently imposed divide: the Red States and the Blue States. That color map comes to us with the suggestion that both coasts are populated by educated civil libertarians, while the vast middle and south are criss-crossed with the studded tracks of ATVs leaving a trail of flying beer cans and rebel yells. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little. But I certainly sense a bit of that when urban friends ask me how I can stand living here, "so far from everything?" (When I hear this question over the phone, I'm usually looking out the window at a forest, a running creek, and a vegetable garden, thinking: Define everything.) ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Chris Colfer ... he's like a ... playful wood-nymph. ~ Darren Criss

One of the bigger mistakes of our time, I suppose, was preaching the demonization of all judgment without teaching how to judge righteously. We now live in an age where, apart from the inability to bear even good judgment when it so passes by, still everyone, inevitably, has a viral opinion (judgment) about everything and everyone, but little skill in good judgment as its verification or harness. ~ Criss Jami

Ryon posed the question in all their minds -what the fuck is he?
The love child of Criss Angel and Adam Lambert? Jaxon tossed back.
His friend gave a soft snort that might've been a laugh. With a little Nikki Sixx thrown in, sure. ~ J.D. Tyler

How is it that some celebrities, whom the average person would believe to have all the popularity a human being could want, still admit to feeling lonely? It is quite naive to assume that popularity is the remedy for loneliness. Loneliness does not necessarily equal physical solitude, it is the inability to be oneself and rightfully represented as oneself. ~ Criss Jami

Labeled fools to the world are geniuses to the cosmos. ~ Criss Jami

Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both. ~ Criss Jami

God, as represented by Scripture, by nature is the true non-conformist. He does not need to conform to any truth; He does not need to conform to some moral law. It proclaims that He is the Truth; He defines Morality: the Great I Am, the Beginning and the End who radiates all that is Holy. Therefore, and unless we too were wholly holy and omniscient, we would do well to understand at the very least that even if this God were to wipe away all in existence, then despite my opinion or your opinion, His decision would be objectively good and moral simply because He is the one doing it. ~ Criss Jami

Children are the most reasonable about discipline. When they tell you not to do something, it's always because they know why. ~ Criss Jami

If I were to vote, I would intentionally vote for the goofiest candidate. It is my theory that when the people can outwit the leader, the more respected their voices will be. ~ Criss Jami

Drunken men give some of the best pep talks. ~ Criss Jami

When I was in college, I was in the theater department, which for anyone who has been involved in any kind of theater program, you know that it's really wacky and tight-knit, a real family. Me and my good friends from college would do random shows and plays that were sometimes serious, but most of the time really goofy and funny. ~ Darren Criss

What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave. ~ Criss Jami

Oftentimes in reality, the genius is in the position of the antihero. Neither the good guys nor the bad guys really trust him because his truth is universal. ~ Criss Jami

Picking locks or handcuffs for me is not really a big deal, I can do it pretty much in seconds, I've been doing since I was 14 years old. I used to sit on my bed as a kid with a pick set and you know just picking locks and stuff, so I'm used to it. ~ Criss Angel

Knowledge is power, as some say. But on some days it is just as much pain and confusion as it is power; and any wise man worth his salt as a wise man at least understands this. One may be able to comprehend all the human perspectives in the universe, but this gives more to decipher regarding what is actually true; and even after discovering the truth, the challenge is in maintaining a patience for the infinite number of opinions that do not reflect that truth. Its consistency in man is challenge. A worldly knowledge ends at the former challenge of confusion, but the knowledge of Christ ends at the latter challenge of patience. ~ Criss Jami

To spend your time wanting things is to smother your time for achieving things beyond your expectations. ~ Criss Jami

My heart goes out to some of those rather hostile yet highly intelligent individuals who may see problems really because they have solutions. That hostility is learned in defense; not offense. An often stubborn and prideful world, in its self-destructive, temporary bliss of ignorance, may be violently resistant to the watchful mind. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

I enjoy poetry where I can talk as bizarre as I please, but theology or philosophy, I always respect the truth by taking it a step further. ~ Criss Jami

When we find that God's ways always coincide with our own ways, it's time to question who we're really worshipping, God or ourselves. The latter moves the nature of godliness from the King to our servant to a slave, a deduction into the realm of selfhood and then the lower, slavehood. It's a spiritual mathematics in that men who need God in his godhood are humble yet strong and spiritually ambitious while men who need a slave in their selfhood are ultimately paralyzed and will remain paralyzed. ~ Criss Jami

Respect elders; protect children. This I do believe. As a young man it is sometimes, in a charitable sense, difficult to shake the sentiment that every elderly person is my grandparent, and every child is my child. ~ 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

There are two circumstances that lead to arrogance: one is when you're wrong and you can't face it; the other is when you're right and nobody else can face it. ~ Criss Jami

Is it 'Stockholm syndrome' when your God has never once misguided your steps? I think not! Let the lost ones dart across the darkness, bashing into walls, pretending to love their ways as we delight in obedience to the footsteps of Christ which bring us to freedom. By Faith we wander - not because we are lost, but because we are free. ~ Criss Jami

The evangelist is the world's hopeless romantic, and just like a hopeless romantic, he must hope for the miracle of God more than the romance itself. ~ Criss Jami

In societies where coolness and being cool is a top priority, the religious replace the word 'religious' with 'spiritual' to make their faiths seem less extreme. ~ 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 starts off like climbing a tree or solving a puzzle - poetry, if nothing else, is just fun to write. But deeper into each and every piece, you no longer hesitate to call it work. It's passion. A poet's sense of lyrical accomplishment is then his food and water, his means of survival. ~ Criss Jami

God's relationship with man does not work in a way in which man stumbles and then God has to drop what he is doing in order to lift him up; rather, man stumbles so that God can lift him up. Hence it is utterly impossible to truly diminish his glory. ~ Criss Jami

One of the biggest contradictions in self-proclaimed open-mindedness is to say that we're all one but when a true bigot comes around tell him we're all different. It's usually the case that neither side is correct. One might have the right to do something, anything, but sure enough, that doesn't mean it's right and a benefit to other people. ~ Criss Jami

The power of a smile goes a long way. My mom taught me that. ~ Darren Criss

Usually without realizing it, our ultimate peace starts and ends in the authority of God alone, which means the solution to living in joy, peace, and harmony with our fellow men has been here for all since the beginning of mankind and throughout civilization. I have yet to feel the urge to argue politics: it reminds me of getting off the freeway to sit in raging traffic. ~ Criss Jami

God speaks of his children shining best in ways that only he can provide. The heavens lift one as a golden child while the flesh lowers one to a child with gold. ~ Criss Jami

I do not believe it possible for one to genuinely love Truth more than people (or vice versa). One might fall into the snare of loving the search more than people, or the pride of having exposed something or someone, but not the truth itself. For if you love Truth you love people; because to love people at all and without illusion, you must also love the truth about them. ~ Criss Jami

How to love is the real question. We all know to love and to keep loving more, but man's confusion comes from the differing opinions on how to love. The Church will always be accused of not loving enough by human standards - which should be its motivation to love more - however that is, in many cases, because its focus is and should also be to love on levels of eternal significance. This is the level of love that will inevitably go unnoticed by those who do not believe in eternity. ~ Criss Jami

If Christians always seemed to be the most intelligent and the most righteous of men, I'd be a skeptic. ~ Criss Jami

I wish what I do was all real. Some of it's real, some of it's an illusion and I try to blur the line between both, but unfortunately I've got to be honest with you. Taking a $1 bill and turning it into a $100 - unfortunately it's not real. ~ Criss Angel

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. ~ Criss Jami

I used to think that if I had success I would have freedom. But I have less freedom now than I've ever had. And what gives me satisfaction is not the jewelry and not the cars. What gives me satisfaction is doing things for others, like children. ~ Criss Angel

I am not convinced within myself that to its core and as a whole, humanity has, as some like to assume, progressed a great deal over the millennia. Human technology? Of course. Human beings? Hardly. ~ Criss Jami

A lot of the demonstrations that I do, when I get inside people's minds, is understanding human behavior and understanding how people think and getting their patterns down so I know how to create the illusion that I get inside their brain. ~ Criss Angel

When you meet someone, and you find that they are prejudiced against your kind, it might be your chance, not to confirm, but to be the one to finally change their mind. ~ Criss Jami

Much like humans, opinions come in all shapes and forms, but in the end, they are just what they are; and may yet still be categorized in nature. The first you might say is the Indoctrinal, which is, of course, dictated by community and necessity, by the human need for acceptance; secondly, there is the Personal, and this is often dictated by individuality, by the yearning to seem interesting and intelligent, or free, or special; and lastly comes the Emotional. This is most commonly dictated by circumstance and bitterness and excitement. However, rarely do we find the case in which any of these are dictated by reason in the pure state: it is by this we see that at the core of a number of false opinions lies not always misinformation but quite often some issue of the human self. ~ Criss Jami

I am a street performer as much as I am a stage performer. Yes, I have a television show, but every trick, every 'Mindfreak' you see, I can do live. ~ Criss Angel

She softly presses her lips against mine and moves them gently to encourage my participation, which I happily oblige. She lightly traces her tongue along the seam of my lips, eliciting a rumbling moan from my throat and encouraging gooseflesh to spread across my torso and down my body.
She's mine…
She's all I ever wanted, and now she's mine. I open my mouth to her and allow her access so we can begin to mend and heal.
A whimper escapes her throat and crashes through my constraints, encouraging me to escalate the kiss by moving in to consume her and demand even more from her.
~Silas, Resilient~ ~ Criss Copp

History does seem to repeat itself hence it's mindboggling to still hear the 'avoid all negative people' speeches from, of all people, supposedly important spiritual teachers. Ironically, their congregations would probably be the ones hiding their faces from the accuracies of truth speakers like Christ. Now, Christ was the complete opposite of negative, however the danger is that truth is often misunderstood as negativity by those who are constantly taught to only seek flattery. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

After awhile you realize that putting your actions where your mouth is makes you less likely to have to put your money where your mouth is. ~ Criss Jami

The whole strenuous intellectual work of an industrious research worker would appear, after all, in vain and hopeless, if he were not occasionally through some striking facts to find that he had, at the end of all his criss-cross journeys, at last accomplished at least one step which was conclusively nearer the truth. ~ Max Planck

The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

We are thrilled to work with Fun and share the same sentiment that we want do some really exciting and innovative things for the magic community. ~ Criss Angel

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. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

Love begets wisdom, thus it is, as often misconceived, more than vain layers of tenderness; it is inherently rational and comprehensive of the problem within the problem: for instance, envy is one of the most excused sins in the media of political correctness. Those you find most attractive, or seem to have it all, are often some of the most insecure at heart, and that is because people assume that they do not need anything but defamation. ~ Criss Jami

A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness. ~ Criss Jami

Some skeptics believe religious people are religious because they fear Hell. It's about as fair as saying skeptics are skeptics because they fear the ridicule of modern society. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

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. ~ Criss Jami

Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don't laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions ~ Criss Jami

Challenge is good for any relationship. ~ Darren Criss

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. ~ Criss Jami

There is a greater Christian faith than one which settles for the temporal happiness, and that is the augmentation of faith. The more faithful you become, the harder the obstacles get; but the harder the obstacles get, the tougher your spine grows; and the tougher your spine grows, the less dependent you are on man's approval. I came to know this about Christianity when valuing faith before comfort. ~ 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

To be more precise about it, it is neither close nor open-mindedness but wisdom, discernment, and a pure heart that God wants. ~ Criss Jami

The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not. ~ Criss Jami

Knowing the truth is so minuscule compared to having the nerve to say it ... and even more to live it. ~ Criss Jami

Ingredients to success: know what you do well, know what to do well, and know someone who's swell. ~ Criss Jami

They have a special confidence in Christ, plus thoughtfulness plus faithfulness plus humility: for there are no things, in all creation, more beautiful, more rare than the so very disciplined and free, joyful and principled daughters of God. ~ Criss Jami

No one has the ability, that I'm aware of, to do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead. ~ Criss Angel

The hated man is the result of his hater's pride rather than his hater's conscience. ~ Criss Jami

Only the man who thinks himself a fool is as wise as he thinks. ~ Criss Jami

I feel as though whenever I create something, my Mr. Hyde wakes up in the middle of the night and starts thrashing it. I sometimes love it the next morning, but other times it is an abomination. ~ Criss Jami

I'm super annoying, I'm the kind of guy that if there's no recycling bins around I hoard plastic bottles, put them in my bag and I bring them home. If I can afford it I want to put solar panels in. ~ Darren Criss

Freedom of speech is detestable only to those who have no desire to think for themselves. ~ Criss Jami

Vivid simplicity is the articulation, the nature of genius. Wisdom is greater than intelligence; intelligence is greater than philosobabble. ~ Criss Jami

Perhaps it is true that, by some definitions, Satan is more religious than God. Many of the particularly proud sinners are deceived into thinking that Satan is anti-religious, that he likes seeing people do immoral things simply because he likes immoral things. Doubtful; Satan likes for people to do immoral things so that he can blame them for doing immoral things. The Father of Lies laughs not with his teammates, but at them. ~ Criss Jami

What you see is what you get. ~ Criss Angel

Fashion is about owning whatever you're wearing, regardless of if it's a high fashion statement or not. ~ Darren Criss

One can only return to the fact that even the most ordinary, good-hearted, intelligent people are literally prone to believing the most blatantly nonsensical untruths. And this comes from the realization that there are some opinions and some beliefs so incredibly inane, we may actually on occasion feel insane for not believing them; and that is probably because in giving the benefit of the doubt we self-doubt, we convince ourselves into lame passivity and blind acceptance, we tell ourselves, 'Maybe I'm just missing something here. ~ Criss Jami