Revelation Quotes

“We of alien looks or words must stick together.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Have you ever thought what a God would be like who actually ordained and executed the cruelty that is in [the biblical Book of Revelation]? A holocaust of mankind. Yet so many of these Bible-men accept the idea without a second thought.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Like all lawyers, I was delighted by gratitude. It happened so rarely.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Many [Tudor-era religious radicals] believed then, exactly as Christian fundamentalists do today, that they lived in the 'last days' before Armageddon and, again just as now, saw signs all around in the world that they took as certain proof that the Apocalypse was imminent. Again like fundamentalists today, they looked on the prospect of the violent destruction of mankind without turning a hair. The remarkable similarity between the first Tudor Puritans and the fanatics among today's Christian fundamentalists extends to their selective reading of the Bible, their emphasis on the Book of Revelation, their certainty of their rightness, even to their phraseology. Where the Book of Revelation is concerned, I share the view of Guy, that the early church fathers released something very dangerous on the world when, after much deliberation, they decided to include it in the Christian canon."

[From the author's concluding Historical Note]”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“It has become a world of black and white, Matthew, a Manichean world where preachers encourage everyone to rush towards a conflict between good and evil. Each knowing, of course, that their own side is entirely in the right.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“You sound as fierce against sin as Harsnet.’ He grinned. ‘Only sins I don’t feel drawn to myself,’ he said with a flash of his old humour. ‘ ’Tis always easy to condemn those.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“It has driven men to extremes, to the impious arrogance of believing they alone can comprehend the vast mysteries of Scripture, let alone the mind of God. Such people are incapable of understanding even their own minds, for they confuse their own needs, for certainty or power, with God’s voice speaking to them.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Fanatics on both sides,’ old Ryprose said gloomily. ‘And all we poor ordinary folk in the middle. Sometimes I fear they will bring death to us all.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Huoneesta kuuluva Piersin ääni oli hiljainen mutta veitsenterävä.

(C. J. Sansom: Ilmestys, suom. Ilkka Rekiaro)”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“I know everyone would like it to be over. I wish I could believe that myself. But we cannot always believe what suits us.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Perhaps that is the problem," I answered gently. "You built a fantasy of how married life would be, and find hard the reality of a union which heaven knows has been blessed with little luck. But that is the fault of neither of you. If only the two of you could talk freely.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“God: "I did not take Eloise out of the world. Why should your life be more important than hers?"

And that gentlest of chidings showed me all along, without even thinking of it, I had been assuming my scholar's life was more important to God than hers, that he would snuff hers out as a ploy to get me into the cloister.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“I continued to pray. I did not want to but felt it was important; oddly enough it was an achor to the real world, which was slipping out of focus for me.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Madness is an illness, and sometimes, like other illnesses, it may be treated.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“He must have an utter devotion to his twisted passions, above anything else in the world. He can have no conscience. In his world only he matters. And it is perhaps not so large a step from there to persuading yourself that God himself has set you the task you so enjoy.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Our minds are ruled by passions more than reason. And sometimes they run out of control.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“You pray so hard,' Guy asked gently, 'would you hear God if He answered you?'

Adam frowned, looked at Guy suspiciously. 'How could I not hear Him?'

'Because of your fear that is so strong it drowns everything. Is it Hell you fear?”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“It is a change of approach that is much needed, study based on observation, not merely acceptance of blind doctrine.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“These are deep waters. Politics and madness.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“That was the paradox - the vicious struggle between papists and sacramentaries was driving many away from faith altogether. Christ said, by their fruits shall you know them, and the fruits of the faithful of both sides looked more rotten each year.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“In the dealing I had had with the godly men, I had found them difficult to deal with, crude hard men who drove at you with biblical verses like a carpenter hammering in nails.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“seen the wildness that follows when fanatics without self-doubt gain power.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“I am grateful to James Willoughby for helping me by looking at the records of one possible case, which however turned out to be a canard.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Yes,”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“sectaries?”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation