Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death Quotes

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

“Sidney had never been very good at differentiating between tasks that were urgent and those which were important, and often those tasks that seemed urgent, but were not important, took precedence over the duties that were important, but not urgent.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“Sidney remembered how strikingly original the poem was. For George Herbert, the time we spend on earth is not all too brief and transient but too long: because it detains human beings from a life outside time and with God.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“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

“I don’t mean religious faith. I mean faith in our own abilities. We have to do the best we can with the talents we have, Geordie. The future is too unpredictable for anxiety.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“We had so much to look forward to. It was as if we were going to be young once more and we could be whoever we wanted to be. We would start again. We were going to live as we have never lived.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Here Sidney sat, with the ham sandwich and flask of tea that Mrs Maguire had prepared, and let thoughts come to him. It was a form of prayer, he decided. It was not asking or talking but waiting and listening.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“The race was not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, he told himself. Time and chance happened to them all, and it was vital, above all, to hold a steady course.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“So much of life was about noticing things, he thought. It was about observation.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“how much a person was defined by geography, and how much by upbringing, education, profession, faith and choice of friends. ‘How much can a person change in a life?”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Singing is the sound of the soul.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“He believed that the secret of happiness was to concentrate on things outside oneself. Introspection and self-awareness were the enemies of contentment,”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Passion is such a stronge emotion that it dominates everything. It's like a strong spice in a meal, or a dominant red in a painting. Your senses are drawn to it at the expense of everything else. Dominic and I were not physical friends, so to speak. But I did love him. We can't help loving the people we do, can we? But the love doesn't have to be physical. You can be equally intimate. It doesn't matter.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“Sidney was beginning to feel uncomfortable. As a priest he was used to informal confession, but he could never quite reconcile himself to the fact that it often contained quite a lot of detail. There were times when he wished people wouldn’t tell him so much.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

“For George Herbert, the time we spend on earth is not all too brief and transient but too long: because it detains human beings from a life outside time and with God.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

“It has to be your decision, Amanda. But you can tell your father that you are not prepared to marry without love. That is, I am afraid, the minimum requirement.’ ‘Can you grow to love someone?’ ‘There has to be something there in the first place, I would have thought.’ ‘As we have, you mean?’ ‘Yes, Amanda,’ Sidney sighed once more. ‘As we have.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death