Sydney Carter quotes

There are obvious problems with so many denominations in schools today, but I had collective worship at school and I do not think it is a bad thing. (Sydney Carter)

There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light, for the light is forever and the light it is free, "And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.

Sydney Carter

There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man, it's the light that was shining when the world began. There's a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew and a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.

Sydney Carter

All shall be well, I'm telling you, let the winter come and go All shall be well again, I know.

Sydney Carter

They buried my body And they thought I'd gone, But I am the Dance, And I still go on.

Sydney Carter

With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he. "Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall, but the light will be shining at the end of it all.

Sydney Carter

They are songs which can be sung in a Christian context, but they all had to mean something to me because I was often on the edge of not believing. The songs certainly have not made my fortune, but I am still grateful for the royalties when they come in.

Sydney Carter

Love, like the yellow daffodil, is Lord of all I know.

Sydney Carter

So what do you believe in? Nothing fixed or final, all the while I travel a miracle. I doubt, and yet I walk upon the water.

Sydney Carter

Coming and going by the dance, I see That what I am not is a part of me. Dancing is all that I can ever trust, The dance is all I am, the rest is dust. I will believe my bones and live by what Will go on dancing when my bones are not.

Sydney Carter

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth. (Sydney Carter)

Dance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he.

Sydney Carter

They cut me down And I leapt up high; I am the life That'll never, never die; I'll live in you If you'll live in me - I am the Lord Of the Dance, said he.

Sydney Carter

I was hungry and thirsty Were you there, were you there? I was hungry and thirsty, were you there? And the creed and the colour And the name won't matter Were you there?

Sydney Carter

Wherever you travel I'll be there, I'll be there Wherever you travel, I'll be there And the creed and the colour And the name won't matter I'll be there.

Sydney Carter

If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?" "But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!" "Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he, "For the truth is more holy than the book, to me.

Sydney Carter

Loud are the bells of Norwich and the people come and go. Here by the tower of Julian, I tell them what I know.

Sydney Carter

Your holy hearsay is not evidence. Give me the good news in the present tense. What happened nineteen hundred years ago May not have happened. How am I to know? So shut your Bibles up and show me how The Christ you talk about Is living now.

Sydney Carter

I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus. Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't...

Sydney Carter