Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins Quotes

“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

“We are born in a clear field and die in a dark forest.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“There was no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins

“The sky looked as if it had been shaded in charcoal, given a light wash of pale blue and left for the day.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins

“I like it when no one knows what I'm going to do next. It makes everything more exciting.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins

“There are no absolutes.’ ‘I think there are,’ said Sidney. ‘Fairness, justice, toleration, support for the weak, care for those in need, truth and love.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“I can’t allow myself to tire. I’ve already run off the cliff. I just have to keep remembering not to look down.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“It was our Christian duty, therefore, to examine our consciences and understand that our greatest strength might be to show our weaknesses; to confess our failings, and acknowledge our helplessness; to become as open and defenceless as the Christ child who came amongst us.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“The members of the family were like pillars in a Renaissance cloister, he thought, individually contributing to the whole design. Together they formed something stronger and more beautiful than anything they could achieve on their own. Then, at the end of their lives, the least they might be able to say was that they had understood what it was to take part in something greater than themselves. They had known love. They would defend it against anything that came after it; taking risks in order to care for each other in the face of an indifferent world, working as hard as they could to nurture, preserve and protect what they had found and made. Such a love was too precious to put in jeopardy. It was life itself.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“He was puzzled by his mood. Despite the beauty of his surroundings, he found it curiously disconcerting. The art was almost too good to be true. What was it saying about humanity, and how much was the Renaissance culpable of creating the myth of individual rather than collective achievement? Was this the beginning of the desire for individual fame and recognition that contradicted Christian humility and shared responsibility; licensing the modern notion of ambition and selfish aspiration? On”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Was Adam safe? Was any child, even his own dearest Anna, ever free from danger? As soon as a son or daughter was placed in the care of others a parent had made an act of trust. If that was misplaced or mistaken, it could soon come to be seen as carelessness or neglect. Perhaps being a parent was to live in a state of constant fear, where the cost of the freedom of youth lay in the anxiety of those who protected it?   Because”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Keating had the appearance of a man who was reluctant to say what he had to say while simultaneously bursting to spill the beans.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Keating had the appearance of a man who was reluctant to say what he had to say”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Sidney was shaking. He hated confrontation. It reminded him of being in trouble at school or being reprimanded by his parents. He felt his insides churn and had a desperate need for the lavatory.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“All this front’s a bluster. I spend most of my life acting.’ ‘I think we all do that; we play different parts depending who we are with and the situation we are in.’ ‘But don’t you ever want life to just stop, Sidney?”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“After Sidney had given her his handkerchief and ordered further drinks, Amanda turned the conversation towards her childhood; how she wanted to run away back to the time when she was last happy, holidaying on the island of Skye, on a day with strong winds and dark skies, the barking of dogs, the bleating of sheep, the collapse of telephone wires – with no boat daring to go out to sea, and everyone stuck inside. ‘No one thought we would ever go out again, but then the dark clouds moved and everything blew over the Cuillins and the sun came through the clouds and light fell across the tops. The wind was stilled and we could go out again and I felt such happiness that the darkness had passed. I often think that if I ever go back there then the same thing will happen, that the clouds will clear and the air will still be fresh, and the dogs will stop barking, and the light on the mountains will be sharp even if it’s only for a short time. I will still have seen it. Do you understand, Sidney?’ ‘Like Noah after the flood.’ ‘We always need something to remember. A time when everything was possible. Do you think this too will pass?’ ‘Eventually. The compensation for losing happiness, for discovering that it never lasts, is that our troubles are transient too.’ ‘I don’t think that’s of much comfort to those who are in distress.’ ‘One cannot be trite about these things. But the ultimate end to suffering is death.’ ‘Then perhaps I could find the person behind all this and kill them myself?’ ‘I’ll ignore that remark, Amanda.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Marriage asks that you renounce your solitary life. It requires you to put the other person first, rather than yourself. It requires latitude, tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. These are difficult matters, not least because it means being less selfish.’ Amanda”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“He had not quite made up his mind about him, despite there being nothing obviously wrong with the man. In fact he had exercised considerable bravery in facing domestic violence. It might have been a small thing compared to the courage necessary in wartime, but sometimes, Sidney thought, the Englishman was more frightened of emotional than physical confrontation, preferring, for example, to attack an enemy gun position on a distant hillock than have it out with a friend. Henry”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“I am reminded of the wife of our beloved archbishop who was once asked whether she had ever been tempted by the idea of adultery.’ ‘And had she?’ ‘“Never,” she replied. “But murder, often.”’ ‘I’ll”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“That doesn’t sound very charitable.’ ‘I wasn’t aware that we are a charity.’ ‘I thought we were.’ ‘You know what I mean.’ ‘Was”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“she’s someone who has used the benefits of privilege to become a socialist?”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“All I can tell you is that if there’s no peace for the wicked then there’s no rest for the good. Either way, man, you’re doomed.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“He remembered an elderly clergyman once telling him that ‘a Christian life will always be a failure’ and thought about what the man must have meant; perhaps that one could never live up to the example of Christ; that inevitably a priest must fall short. Most lives ended in disappointment of some sort. It was impossible to go on, to finish strongly or defeat death. Acknowledging that we cannot be greater than our own limited humanity was perhaps the first step towards becoming a Christian.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4

“Alfred Delbern put forward the idea that there was no such thing as the death of sound; that it never died but diminished in amplitude. He had a friend who believed, for example, that Stonehenge was a repository of dormant sound, and that if you invented the right device you could uncover lost music. What would the music in the stones of a Gothic cathedral sound like?”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins: Grantchester Mysteries 4