The Great Passion Quotes

“When I was your age, my father taught me how important it was to find something to celebrate each day. It didn't matter how small it was, or how long it lasted, but each simple pleasure needs to be marked. It can be...the first hawthorn blossom or the light on the path ahead through summer trees...the smile of a friend, or the silence at the end of a piece of music, as long as it is something precious and private to store up..they are moments of grace. My father called them "amulets of time".”
― James Runcie, The Great Passion

“We must be grateful for each blessing God gives us rather than nurse every injustice. Unhappiness is a form of ingratitude.”
― James Runcie, The Great Passion

“The longer and more difficult the winter, the better the summer. Hard work bears better fruit.”
― James Runcie, The Great Passion

“It is strange living with a long illness,' he explained. "You have to be prepared, ready for the patient to die at any moment, and, at the same time, you have to recognise that they might live for a few more months. It puts you into such a state of apprehension. Your daily routine becomes altogether different. You absent yourself from other people's demands. You cannot quite accept how their lives can continue as normal while yours cannot. But you still have to listen to them, talking away in the usual manner, even though what they are saying no longer matters as much as it once did. It can be disorienting, Monsieur Silbermann. The world is divided between the world of the healthy and the kingdom of the sick. The walls that divide them are very high. You can feel quite set apart."
"And yet one must not be downhearted. The pastors are always reminding us that we are dying as long as we live, but we have to fight back, don't you think? We have to remember that the reverse is true. We are living as long as we are dying. We should not continue in dread. No one can thrive in shadows...”
― James Runcie, The Great Passion