Top 40 James Runcie Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We are born in a clear field and die in a dark forest.”

— James Runcie

2. “Singing is the sound of the soul.”

— James Runcie

3. “Body is a home, a prison and a grave.”

— James Runcie

4. “The ultimate aim of art, like that of love, is to reach for the shapeless origin of all shapes, the essence of beauty.”

— James Runcie

5. “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

6. “The “wonder” felt by the shepherds at the Nativity, or the disciples at Pentecost; that sense of amazement when we experience something that is so far beyond our comprehension and yet it is still revealed to us in all its glory as a gift from the infinite. I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder.”

— James Runcie

7. “We can’t live in a country where there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.”

— James Runcie

8. “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

9. “The truest test of character is how we behave towards people who can do nothing for us.”

— James Runcie

10. “Don’t write to impress. Write to entertain.”

— James Runcie

11. “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

12. “I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder. It’s like the word “awful”. Now it’s something bad, but previously it was close to wonder. People were filled with awe.”

— James Runcie

13. “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

14. “Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after.”

— James Runcie

15. “St John of the Cross once wrote: “In the evening of our life, we shall be judged by our loving.”

— James Runcie

16. “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

17. “There was no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.”

— James Runcie

18. “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

19. “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

20. “There is only one religion – it is a way a man dies.”

— James Runcie

21. “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

22. “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

23. “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

24. “I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means:.”

— James Runcie

25. “He liked washing up; the simple act of cleanliness had immediately visible results.”

— James Runcie

26. “There is always a future for our deepest loves.”

— James Runcie

27. “What a mess people make of their lives,’ he thought.”

— James Runcie

28. “First you get a dog, and then you develop a taste for wine. God knows what might happen next.”

— James Runcie

29. “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

30. “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

31. “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

32. “That’s the wonder of jazz, Mary,” Johnny explained. “There’s no right way and there’s no order.”

— James Runcie

33. “So much of life was about noticing things, he thought. It was about observation.”

— James Runcie

34. “Sometimes,’ he observed, ’things can be rather too clear.”

— James Runcie

35. “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

36. “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

37. “I like it when no one knows what I’m going to do next. It makes everything more exciting.”

— James Runcie

38. “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

39. “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

40. “Who amongst us had not preferred the comfort of illusion or deceived themselves in order to deal with the difficulties of life – sometimes hoping for the impossible – knowing that even if their aspirations were implausibly far-fetched, it was better to take that risky highway rather than remain on the low road of caution and despair? He.”

— James Runcie

41. “I always remember those who gave me the benefit of the doubt. I think I was more shamed by them than those who set out to punish me straight away.”

— James Runcie

42. “I have often puzzled over the phrase “a lingering death”. Other people might refer to that simply as “life”.’ Before.”

— James Runcie