The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Quotes

“Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should be not like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil, that shelters every kind of bird and beast and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place. Does the tree say to the sparrow, 'Get out, you don't belong here?' Does the tree say to the hungry man, 'This fruit is not for you?' Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“There are some who live by every rule and cling tightly to their rectitude because they fear being swept away by a tempest of passion, and there are others who cling to the rules because they fear that there is no passion there at all, and that if they let go they would simply remain where they are, foolish and unmoved; and they could bear that least of all. Living a life of iron control lets them pretend to themselves that only by the mightiest effort of will can they hold great passions at bay.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“And think what worrying does: has anyone ever added a single hour to the length of his life by worrying about it?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“There is time, and there is beyond time. History belongs to time, but truth belongs to what is beyond time. In writing of things as they should have been, you are letting truth into history. You are the word of God.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“She has committed great sins, but they've been forgiven, and that's why she loves so deeply.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“And remember this: take the hard road, not the easy one. The road that leads to life is a hard one, and it passes through a narrow gate, but the road to destruction is easy, and the gate is broad. Plenty take the easy road; few take the hard one. Your job is to find the hard one, and go by that.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“Has anyone ever added a single hour to the length of his life by worrying about it?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“Waste of time," said the leper. "There's a dozen or more beggars who come here every day, pretending to be cripples, hiring themselves out to the holy men. A couple of drachmas and they'll swear they've been crippled or blind for years then stage a bloody miraculous recovery. Holy men? Healers? Don't make me laugh."
"But this man is different," said Christ.
"I remember him," said the blind man. "Jesus. He come here on the sabbath, like a fool. The priests wouldn't let him heal anyone on sabbath. He should've known that."
"But he did heal someone," said the lame man. "Old Hiram. You remember that. He told him to take up his bed and walk."
"Bloody rubbish," said the blind man. "Hiram went as far as the temple gate, then he lay down and went on begging. Old Sarah told me. He said what was the use of taking his living away? Begging was the only thing he knew how to do. You and your blether about goodness," he said, turning to Christ, "where's the goodness in throwing an old man out into the street without a trade, without a home, without a penny? Eh? That Jesus is asking too much of people."
"But he was good," said the lame man. "I don't care what you say. You could feel it, you could see it in his eyes."
"I never saw it," said the blind man.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“in writing like this, he was letting truth from beyond time into history, and thus making history the handmaid of posterity and not its governor...”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“There is time, and there is what is beyond time. There is darkness, and there is light. There is the world and the flesh, and there is God.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“As soon as men who believe they’re doing God’s will get hold of power, whether it’s in a household or a village or in Jerusalem or in Rome itself, the devil enters into them.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“My brother maintains that sinners will be forgiven more readily than those who are righteous,’ he said. ‘I have not sinned very much; perhaps I have not sinned enough to earn the forgiveness of God.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“here am I, my hands red with blood and shame and wet with tears, longing to begin telling the story of Jesus, and not just for the sake of making a record of what happened: I want to play with it; I want to give it a better shape; I want to knot the details together neatly to make patterns and show correspondences, and if they weren’t there in life, I want to put them there in the story, for no other reason than to make a better story.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“Does the tree say to the sparrow “Get out, you don’t belong here?” Does the tree say to the hungry man “This fruit is not for you?” Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“I’d pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“To ask the question and wait for the answer is to know that there will be no answer.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“human life is difficult; there are profundities and compromises and mysteries that look to the innocent eye like betrayal.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“You scribes and Pharisees, if you’re listening – be damned to you. You take endless scruples over the tiniest matters of the law, while you let the great things like justice and mercy and faith go unnoticed and forgotten. You strain the gnats out of your wine, but you ignore the camel standing in it.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“É sagrado e justo o massacre dos opressores — sempre foi. Dize-me se nós, os pobres, não somos oprimidos pelos ricos?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“Mas o que é melhor, almejar a pureza absoluta e fracassar completamente. ou fazer concessões e ter sucesso, mesmo que parcial?”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ