Murray Pura > Quotes

“Christianity was not meant to be a weapon or an argument or a show of force or a political tool. Or an act of aggression or coercion. It was never meant to be a cause or a prop for a cause. Or something to pacify and make thousands go to bed happy and unthinking. It was meant to be a challenge, yes, but that challenge to a second life was meant to be laced with kindness. If someone forces you to choose between God is holy and God is love choose God is love because holiness without love translates into tyranny.”
― Murray Pura

“If winter helps you curl up and more that makes it one of the best of the seasons.”
― Murray Pura

“Why may you not kiss me?” she had demanded. “Am I a corpse?”

“Of course not.”

“Do you find me less attractive now that weather and wind have scoured the bloom from my cheeks?”

“Skaytha, it’s nothing like that. If anything you are more beautiful now than when we lived on Skyrl. Often enough I have no breath when I look at you. You rob me of any other thoughts.”

“So you’re afraid my kisses will take what little brain you have left?”

“I’m afraid the angels will do something I don’t want them to do if I fly in the face of their commands, commands I can only assume are divine as well as angelic.”

“Did you ever think to ask them the reasons behind their demands?”

“When it is an angel I just want to get out of the conversation alive or at least without being struck dumb. So I don’t prolong the chat.”

“You might have wanted my kisses more than that. If you had any romance in you you’d have told them you were ready to fight ten legions of angels for my love.”

Hawk had reached out to hold her. “If I’d told them that they might have taken me up on it. Angels are not just useful for gallant flourishes the moment you declare your intention to battle all comers for the woman you love. Angels burn like fire and blaze like a hundred suns – they strike fear in my heart.”

She had pulled away from his embrace and jumped to her feet. “Oh, no, you don’t. If I’m not good enough to kiss I’m not good enough to take in your arms either. It’s angels or me. Make up your mind whom you fear more. Or love more.”

“I don’t love the angels.”

“Clearly you don’t love me either.”

They had been in a tipi. She’d gone to the opening, lifted the flap, bent, and stalked away, passing by warriors of the tribe with her head as high as a goddess and her back as straight as the shaft of the spear. The chief had poked his head in.

“All is well, Hawk?’ he had asked.

Hawk had learned their tongue.

“It couldn’t be better,” Hawk had responded. “Only being slain in battle would be greater than this.”

The chief had thought this over and laughed. "That would bring you great honor."

"I am in short supply of honor right now and such short supply never pleases a woman like her. Better to die at the end of a spear and have it for a few moments and win her back."

The chief had nodded. "Sound wisdom. Would you like to join a raiding party against our enemy tonight?"

"I couldn't be happier."

(from The Name of the Hawk, Book 2)”
― Murray Pura, Legion

“Give yourself permission to come alive. And give yourself permission to stay that way. Murray Pura”
― Murray Pura

“Many have never risked losing the normalcy of their daily existence to gain the astonishing experience of having to see God come through or die.”
― Murray Pura

“Now it was dark as coal. The forest rang with sounds. Hoot owls called back and forth. There was a quick cry from some sort of creature. Merck heard rustling, but he knew the rustling wasn’t human. He could have sworn he heard a catamount screech. It was far away and up high. Once, and only once, a coyote yipped, then sang its shrill tune for half a minute. None of his kith and kin joined in. Merck watched, his eyes perfectly adjusted to the night. He could see the horse wandering around by Thad’s grave. There was a thin trickle nearby and the horse discovered it. Faintly, Merck could hear it drink.”
― Murray Pura, Under the Stones

“Rainbows everywhere we shone the prism. Later on, when I was praying in my room, I thought: All right. If heaven is white it is a white like the prism. When God burns through it. All the colors of Christ are in the air. Holiness is not one thing, brother, it is not one hue or tint.”
― Murray Pura, Zo

“Even if her eyes had been blinded and her legs shackled, she would not have lost her sense of direction. The path to freedom was carved in her heart.”
― Murray Pura, My Heart Belongs in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Clarissa's Conflict

“Think of it this way. A Jap, or a Hun, or a Mongol, or a Saracen, or a Roman, or Hitler… what’s the difference? No difference, Johnny. They all had the same idea. And so guys like you and me, guys who believe men should live in peace, and treat each other with respect, and leave each other alone to live their own lives, guys like us, we sign up and put on a uniform and get a gun and we stand up to these bastards and tell them they can’t pull their crap in the world anymore.”
― Murray Pura, Far On The Ringing Plains

“Why is it I smell ozone whenever I talk to you? I spend half my time waiting for lightning to strike.”
― Murray Pura, Zo

“I spent the day walking about the tortured streets of Berlin – a torture pacified by the milk white of snowdrifts that covered all her splintered bones and shattered walls”
― Murray Pura, Beautiful skin

“never stop marveling when I see God’s creatures in their natural setting of trees and peaks and wild waters. What a breath of fresh air they are to the soul. Our streets are crammed with cars and trucks, our houses stuffed together on narrow streets, our air filled with dust and exhaust, our ears with screeching tires and rumbling engines. But where they live there is liberty—the distances are vast and uncluttered, the air clean and unfettered, the only sounds wind and water and hawk cries or the great forest’s hush, which is”
― Murray Pura, Majestic and Wild: True Stories of Faith and Adventure in the Great Outdoors