Quotes from Philip Yancey

Grace is Christianity's best gift to the world, a spiritual nova in our midst exerting a force stronger than vengeance, stronger than racism, stronger than hate.

He who cannot forgive another breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself. GEORGE HERBERT

Jesus requires—no, demands—a response of forgiveness.

At the heart of sin lies a lack of trust that God intends the best for us.

We're all bastards but God loves us anyway.

At times, God's history seems to operate on an entirely different plane than ours...Exodus identifies by name the two Hebrew midwives who helped save Moses' life, but it does not bother to record the name of the Pharaoh ruling Egypt (an omission that has baffled scholars ever since).

The role of a doctor may be the most revealing image in thinking about God and sin. What a doctor does for me physically - guide me toward health - God does for me spiritually. I am learning to view sins not as an arbitrary list of rules drawn up by a cranky Judge, but rather as a list of dangers that must be avoided at all costs - for our own sakes.

Jimmy Carter taught a Sunday school class throughout his presidency, winning the grudging respect of reporters who had once questioned his religious talk as a political ploy. Even so, he lost many Christians' votes to Ronald Reagan, the only U.S. president to have been divorced and who rarely attended church and gave little to charity, mainly because Reagan supported many of the favorite causes of the religious Right.

a long period of struggle and effort precedes nearly all worthwhile human accomplishments.

Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken.

The church works best as a force of resistance, a counterbalance to the consuming power of the state.

Nothing else — no learned "how-to" program, no expensive gift — is worth more to the sufferer than the comfortable assurance of your physical presence.