Quotes from Lionel Blue

For some years I deserted religion in favour of Marxism. The republic of goodness seemed more attainable than the Kingdom of God.

The real evidence for Jesus and Christianity is in how Jesus and the Christianity based on him manifest themselves in the lives of practicing Christians.

Praying privately in churches, I began to discover that heaven was my true home and also that it was here and now, woven into this life.

The Christian use of religion as a personal love affair both shocked me, and attracted me.

I feel that the Christian experience and the Jewish one have much to give each other. If this open society continues and there is no return to political anti-Semitism, then this encounter, deeper than any theology, may happen.

I learnt pity, sympathy, and what it was like to be at the other end of the stick. Such lessons can't be learnt in lecture halls.

I didn't want to be on the losing side. I was fed up with Jewish weakness, timidity and fear. I didn't want any more Jewish sentimentality and Jewish suffering. I was sickened by our sad songs.

I recovered my infant Judaism, but in a reformist version.

If a dish doesn't turn out right, change the name and don't bat an eyelid. A fallen souffle is only a risen omelette. It depends on the self-confidence with which you present it.

For a devotee or lover, the being, worshipped or loved, will always be the only one for her or him.

Pious XII was too neutral to mention the gas chambers; decent people like my own family were turned into devils by crude Christianity.

I didn't want to be on the losing side. I was fed up with Jewish weakness, timidity and fear. I didn't want any more Jewish sentimentality and Jewish suffering. I was sickened by our sad songs.