Quotes from Susan Howatch

I am a lover of truth; and if you think of truth as being multifaceted and so huge that we human beings can't fully comprehend it, then obviously it makes sense to put all the facts together - to compare disciplines and try to advance the sum of knowledge by exploration and examination.

If you are a Christian, you want to give as much as you can away. It sounds pious, but it's not a duty; it's a kind of joy.

I can't complain about the way I've been marketed because it's been so successful.

It doesn't do to be sentimental about cats; the best ones don't respect you for it

It was tremendously exciting to discover that science was not destroying religion, as people popularly believe, but that it could cast light on theism and Christianity.

One wonders what would happen in a society in which there were no rules to break. Doubtless everyone would quickly die of boredom.

One wonders what would happen in a society where there were no rules to break. Doubtlessly everyone would quickly die of boredom.

Its really most remarkable how the human race is so seldom satisfied with what its got. Give a man the world and he's pining for the moon.

Morality's like mink," I said. "It's great if you can afford it.

It is frightening to be different," said Anna.

one should stick to one's principles and never compromise them just to do the done thing!

Why does no one ever admit that hatred and love can exist side by side, each emotion genuine but only one ever acknowledged as real?

How could parents endure to labour for years, to sacrifice themselves so that their children should have nothing but the best, and to discover in the end that it had all been for so little, for a quick visit on national holidays and a few hours spent in front of the television set in a silence neither side knew how to break?

I've now reached the point where I don't hate anyone. Hatred makes things worse. Hatred stops one coming to terms with all the horror and grief. And one must come to terms with it. Somehow.

But then I looked in the glass and saw the spy beyond the clergyman, the image beyond the image, and beyond the spy was yet another man, the image beyond the image beyond the image. Reality blurred; fantasy and truth became inextricably intertwined. I told myself I had imagined the distant stranger but as I felt my personality begin to divide I covered my face with my hands.

We have the three As instead: allies, aides and acquaintances. Or in other words: those we barter with, those we buy and those we acknowledge because it suits us to do so

If one really stopped to think about the insane way the universe is arranged one would go mad in no time, so now and then it's good to laugh, it's therapeutic, it dilutes the pain

Hypocrisy saves one's sanity. It's the shield you hide behind when the truth is too terrible to face

The gifts of the Spirit can be recognized by their fruits.

never think God doesn't listen when you tell Him what you want.

You're all cut off and sewn up

We always glamorize what we don't have

If you pursue the truth far enough you always wind up in the land of paradox. You reach a point where the apparent truth divides into two opposing truths, and then you have to try to reach beyond them to grasp the ultimate truth, their synthesis.

If people believe you're brave you may not only half believe them but even draw a spurious courage from their delusion.