Quotes from Jamie Langston Turner

We must never forget that our small, daily acts can total a great sum of love. They can be the stars by which others find their way through the dark voyage of life.

I knew that were I ever to emerge from my darkness to seek a more excellent way of living...this must be my first step: to choose to forgive. It was a dangerous and desperate step, but how I yearned for the respite it could afford - if indeed there were any respite to be had. p 233

This is the danger of reading. One never knows what will be stumbled upon, what old embers may leap again to flame. p 241

The habit of trusting God - could there be such a thing? Could such a habit be a lifeline when tribulations swept over you? Could you hang on to it during the worst of the storm without seeing any evidence that it was real? And then when the strongest waves and winds of sorrow had passed, could you realise that what you had held in your hands all along was genuine, that it was your means of rescue?

an insidious form of pride had crept into my heart and taken up residence: the pride of suffering. p 297

my life was only one of countless stories of human pain; that though I had considered myself the prima donna of sufferers, I was simply one of a vast troupe; that darkness indeed descends upon every man and woman, but that moon and stars also shine down upon all. p 315

When and if I wish to yield my privacy to the scrutiny of others, you will be the first to be invited to the exhibition.

And you know what? I found out that Joe Leonard wasn't the only one who had a scar because of me. I found out that the person's name I had been taking in vain all those years had scars because of me - and not just one. He was nailed to a cross through His hands and feet. He didn't just get hurt for me, He died for me. He did that to pay for my sins, and He did it because He loved me.

A scene took shape in my mind of myself weeping over Thomas's blood-soaked, outstretched form, a ridiculous scene in which I urged, "Git up, Person, git up!" Actually, I could not recall the last time I had shed tears. It was something that I had stopped doing many years ago.

One did not visit another person's home lightly. Such a visit invariably expanded the dimensions of a relationship. p 86

The quickness with which all positive emotions such as love and trust can be expunged from the heart of a child is astounding. p 131

Indeed, the same millisecond of time can give birth to acts both poisonous and regenerative, both craven and noble, both trivial and momentous, as well as all gradations between.

We must not despise small things," she said at last, "for what at first glance may seem insignificant may well be the source of great beauty and truth.

I was fifty years old, then, when I crept forth from my hiding place, my eyes blinking in the strong light. p 317

Squander your youth," he wanted to say, "and you'll have a lifetime to make heavy payments.

God's grace, he told himself firmly, is big enough to cover the blackest sins. It's strong enough to lift the heaviest load of guilt, to blow the dirt of shame from the darkest corner and scatter it to the four winds. It's good and bright enough to shine into a man's heart and clean out all the filth of the past forever and ever.