James Runcie > Quotes

“Body is a home, a prison and a grave.”
― James Runcie, The Colour of Heaven

“love can be about more than attraction. I sometimes think it is more a question of sanctuary, a case of unassailable friendship.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Introspection and self-awareness were the enemies of contentment,”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“Autumn was his favourite time of year, not simply for its changing colours but for the crispness in the air and the sharpness of the light. As the leaves fell the landscape revealed itself, like a painting being cleaned or a building being renewed. He could see the underlying shape of things. This was what he wanted, he decided: moments of clarity and silence.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“He had never taken such dislike to a man before and immediately felt guilty about it. He remembered his old tutor at theological college telling him, ‘There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved. We need to remember this about ourselves when we think of others.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“There is only one religion - it is a way a man dies.”
― James Runcie, The Colour of Heaven

“Do you know that line of Kierkegaard’s, Canon Chambers? “There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked the sum out for themselves.” ”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“First you get a dog, and then you develop a taste for wine. God knows what might happen next.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“There is always a future for our deepest loves.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“God's grace comes first. His love is prevenient to our response;his forgiveness awakens our repentance.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation

“There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved. We need to remember this about ourselves when we think of others.”
― James Runcie

“Sometimes,’ he observed, ‘things can be rather too clear.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“What a mess people make of their lives,’ he thought.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“When I was your age, my father taught me how important it was to find something to celebrate each day. It didn't matter how small it was, or how long it lasted, but each simple pleasure needs to be marked. It can be...the first hawthorn blossom or the light on the path ahead through summer trees...the smile of a friend, or the silence at the end of a piece of music, as long as it is something precious and private to store up..they are moments of grace. My father called them "amulets of time".”
― James Runcie, The Great Passion

“He liked washing up; the simple act of cleanliness had immediately visible results.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“That's the wonder of jazz, Mary," Johnny explained. "There's no right way and there's no order.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Sometimes, I think, we are not always aware of how much we have to live with what we have done in the past. We can’t predict how these things will affect us.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“It is what often happens in the establishment. Inconvenient truths are left buried. If you don't ask too may questions of a gentlemen then you won't be disappointed."

"And this is what makes us British?"

"It is our face to the world," Sidney replied. "Many of us are civilised, charming and perfectly genuine people. Others have developed their reserve into a form of refined deceit. It's why people find the British so intriguing, Georgie. The line between the gentleman and the assassin can be so very thin.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“The “wonder” felt by the shepherds at the Nativity, or the disciples at Pentecost; that sense of amazement when we experience something that is so far beyond our comprehension and yet it is still revealed to us in all its glory as a gift from the infinite. I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“They are to resist evil, support the weak, defend the poor, and intercede for all in need.” My job is to do the right thing.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“The fragility of a baby is a reminder of our own responsibility,’ Sidney continued. ‘He, or she, is at our mercy, as we are at God’s. A child can either be crushed to death or fed, nurtured, cradled and allowed to grow. We see ourselves in each new birth and remember our own childhood. A society is judged by how it treats its children and its old people. Do we offer a favourable climate for a flower to grow, or do we provide impossible soil, harsh rains, and constant darkness? Christ tells us that it is we who must provide the light to see and warm the child in the cold black nights of the soul. The candles of Christmas represent the hope of our own flickering humanity against death and despair, and no matter how frail the flame, we must trust in its ability to illuminate our fragile state. For the light entered the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. ‘This is the message of Christmas,’ Sidney concluded. ‘Light against darkness, vulnerability against brutality, life against death.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil

“The truest test of character is how we behave towards people who can do nothing for us.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation

“St John of the Cross once wrote: “In the evening of our life, we shall be judged by our loving.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation

“Creía que el secreto de la felicidad consistía en concentrarse en lo que uno tenía a su alrededor"
-Sidney Chambers and the shadow of death”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“We can’t live in a country where there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.’ G. K. Chesterton”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Loyalty should be at the heart of friendship, don’t you think?’ ‘I don’t think it counts for much without it. It’s a question of trust.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“That may be true,’ Sidney replied. ‘If God is aware of the human condition then how can he be content? But perhaps we have to think about the divine presence in a different way; not as what he is, but what he is not. In other words, not human, and not liable to emotion. The concept of happiness perhaps has no subject. It exists outside ourselves, unrelated to any specific human being.’ ‘Then why do we all want to have it?’ ‘Because we are human.’ ‘And therefore we suffer.’ ‘Yes, Geordie.’ ‘So what you are saying is that God does not know happiness; even though he is supposed to be omniscient? I don’t understand how that works.’ ‘John Stuart Mill argued that happiness is not something that can be achieved by striving for it. You have to pursue some other goal and “if otherwise fortunately circumstanced you will inhale happiness with the air you breathe.”’ ‘So happiness is an accident?’ ‘Possibly. Schopenhauer defined it as the temporary absence of pain.’ ‘And that is the best we can hope for?’ ‘Perhaps, but not necessarily.’ ‘Oh, Sidney, this is all too deep for me.’ ‘And”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil

“The ultimate aim of art, like that of love, is to reach for the shapeless origin of all shapes, the essence of beauty.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation

“I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder. It’s like the word “awful”. Now it’s something bad, but previously it was close to wonder. People were filled with awe.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night