Stephen R Lawhead Quotes

Just when I begin to imagine I have achieved some pinnacle of understanding, reached the summit of the highest climb . . . I scramble the last few feet to the top only to see that I have merely gained a foothold on a narrow plateau and that entire new mountain ranges rise before me, serried ranks of peaks, each one higher than the last. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It has ever been thus. The way is hard and narrow, it is true. But it is a path beaten smooth by the countless others who have gone before us. And good news! We do not have to walk it alone. God Himself is with us and has blessed us with friends for the journey. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

May you always have ale enough to wet your tongues, wit enough to know friend from foe, and strength enough for every fight. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Derision is the refuge of threatened ignorance, after all. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

We would follow Arthur to the very gates of Hell and beyond if he asked it. And that is the solitary truth. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

For ourselves, Mighty Father, I pray you keep us from the sin of hatred, keep us from the sin of vengeance, keep us from the sin of despair, but protect us from the wicked schemes of our enemies. Walk with us now on this uncertain road. Send angels to go before us, angels to go behind, angels on either side, angels above and below - guarding, shielding, encompassing." He paused for a moment and then added, "May the Holy One give us the courage of righteousness and grant us strength for this day and through all things whatsoever shall befall us. Amen. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I will weep no more for the lost, asleep in their water graves. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

We kissed, then, and the ardour of her kiss stole my breath away. I returned her passion with all the fervor I possessed. A lifetime of vows and heart-felt disciplines had prepared me well, for in that kiss I sealed with all my soul the fate before me, embracing a mystery clothed in warm and yielding female flesh. Holding only the moment, with neither thought nor care for the future, I kissed her, and drank deep the strong wine of desire. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

And I wondered if he knew how well, how naturally he led. Was it, in the end, so different leading men? Was it not much the same - picking out the trail, deciding the safest way, strengthening the unsure step with words of encouragement, guiding, going ahead, but not too far ahead - was not trailcraft much the same as kingcraft? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Perhaps it is how we are made; perhaps words of truth reach us best through the heart, and stories and songs are the language of the heart ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Call me Silidons, for such I am. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Most High God, let your servant see but a little ahead. Or, if not give me the hope that drives out fear ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

There was a rightness to things that surpassed understanding, but she knew beyond all doubt that in each and every circumstance her feet had been guided along this path and to this place. A favourite saying in China - which she had heard on occasion from her own grandmother - was that the threads of life are easy to weave, but difficult to untangle. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Power as I possess is not, as many believe, given in exchange for a soul. To hear the ignorant speak, one would think it is merely a simple bargain, an exchange of vows, perhaps, and the power one seeks simply flows from the fingertips for the asking. But no, it is not so easy as that! The truly great gifts are not gifts at all, but treasures obtained after long and difficult searching, prizes won only through hard-fought victories over relentless, near-invincible adversaries. [ ... ]
The ignorant speak of hidden arts, but they are not hidden. Indeed, there is nothing secret about them at all; they are freely open and available to any who would pursue them. Ah, but the price! The price is nothing less than the devotion of an entire life. So perhaps the simple-minded are right, after all, in thinking of the acquisition of power as a pact in which the soul is bartered. There is no other way.
- Morgian ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Talent without discipline is only an empty promise - the glitter of an unworked crystal. It is nothing of itself. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It would be a great boon to know where we stand in this world, what is, what has been, what will be. And to know it absolutely. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The female heart is a world unto itself, incomprehensible to men. Yet I perceive that you have been of a mood today: pensive, contemplative, hesitant, expectant. And you have spent the better part of the day watching me as if you thought I might follow your merlin into the sky and never return. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It is the poor man who clenches so tightly to the gold he is given - for fear of losing it. The man of wealth spends his gold freely to accomplish his will in the world. It is the same with life.'
Suddenly ashamed of my conspicuous poverty, I lowered my eyes. But Scatha placed a hand beneath my chin and raised my head. 'Cling too tightly to your life and you will lose it, my Reluctant Warrior. You must become the master of your life, not its slave. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Shape our reality through the exercise of intention, through the application of our free will as conscious beings. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The only true source of infallible certainty is divine illumination. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

That Arthur has not always existed seems odd to me. Like the wind on the moors and the wild winter stars, surely he has always lived ... and always will. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Earth and sky, rock and wind, bear witness!
By the power of the Swift Sure Hand, I claim this ground and sain it with a name: Bwgan Bwlch!

Power of fire I have over it,
Power of wind I have over it,
Power of thunder I have over it,
Power of wrath I have over it,
Power of heavens I have over it,
Power of earth I have over it,
Power of worlds I have over it!

As tramples the swan upon the lake,
As tramples the horse upon the plain,
As tramples the ox upon the meadow,
As tramples the boar upon the track,
As tramples the forest host of heart and hind,
As tramples all quick things upon the earth,
I do trample and subdue it,
And drive all evil from it!

In the name of the Secret One,
In the name of the Living One,
In the name of the All-Encircling One,
In the name of the One True Word, it is Bwgan Bwlch,
Let it so remain as long as men survive
To breath the name. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Truth, they say, is a cold and bitter draught; few drink it undiluted. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Alea iacta est. The die has been cast. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I could not see the unholy creature, but I could feel the bone-aching chill of its presence, and I heard the howl of its mindless hate. I quailed to think of the power that had called it into being and loosed it on the world. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Do not borrow tomorrow's troubles today ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Truth is a constant delight to those that love her; such beauty holds no power to offend. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Words are worth little when the heart refuses to hear. Therefore, judge us by our works. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Knowledge is a burden
once taken up, it can never be discarded. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Had he but known that before the day was over he would discover the hidden dimensions of the universe, Kit might have been better prepared. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Kingship wrought of Infinite worship,
Quick-forged by the Swift Sure Hand;
Bold in Righteousness,
Valiant in Justice,
A sword of honor to defend the clans of Albion! ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The air crackled with the presage of lightning, and a heavy mist descended around them. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I saw Byzantium in a dream and knew that I would die there.. and the golden towers of Byzantium would be my tomb ~ Aidan ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Streams of consequence flow from every action, and from every conflict there are two paths by which events may go. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

And the Wise Emrys said that Arthur would yet come again to lead his own. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

An artist must be pure of heart," said Gerdes, "for true art is the expression of the artist's innermost being. To create beauty, one must be beautiful" - she pressed her hands to her bosom - "in here, in your heart of hearts. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Lately, however, the routine had begun to pall. Coprolites and Jurassic snails no longer held the fascination they once did, and the incessant backbiting and political manoeuvring endemic in upperechelon academia - which she had always known and accepted as part of the scholastic landscape - was proving more and more of an irksome distraction. The further she travelled into darkest PhD territory, the more the fossilised remains of extinct creatures dwindled in fascination; she was rapidly specialising herself beyond caring about her subject. Whether or not the world learned what the latest new megasaurus ate for lunch sixty million years ago, what difference did it make? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

J. R. R. Tolkien, undisputedly a most fluent speaker of this language, was criticized in his day for indulging his juvenile whim of writing fantasy, which was then considered - as it still is in many quarters - an inferior form of literature and disdained as mere "escapism." "Of course it is escapist," he cried. "That is its glory! When a soldier is a prisoner of war it is his duty to escape - and take as many with him as he can." He went on to explain, "The moneylenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as possible. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

When iniquity sits in the judgement seat, good men must take their appeals to a higher court. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

A man can learn much, but learning is not knowledge. The only true source of infallible certainity is divine illumination. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

In order to welcome redemption, one must first embrace the utter hopelessness of failure. For how can a man look for rescue unless he knows he is truly lost? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The spell is Morgians ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

What did you do with your life, Master Bran?" she demanded accusingly. "More to the point, what will you do with your life now that you have it back? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Myrddin', I said gently, 'what is she to you?'
His head whipped round and he glared at me. His mouth was a grimace of revulsion, and his eyes were hard, bright points of pain. 'She is my death ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Pray God our aim is true and each arrow finds it's mark. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Pray God our aim is straight and true and each arrow finds its mark. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

In truth I had forgotten all about Arthur and our reason for coming to Benowyc in the first place. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Bright-kindled from heavenly flames,
framed of Love's all-consuming fire,
Ignited of purest passion,
Burning in the Creator King's heart,
A splendor of bliss to illuminate Albion! ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

To behold Queen Gwenhwyvar and the Lady of the Lake together was to peer too long into the sun's brilliant dazzle, to feel the heart lurch in the breast for yearning, to have the words stolen from the tongue before the lips could speak them. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

There cannot be even the smallest grain of falsehood in it or it is not truth. I have discovered the source of all truth; how can I deny what I know? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It is but one of the many follies of luxury which lead men to believe that plenty now is abundance always and fortune is everlasting. Pure folly. My ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

They are young and life has no limits. Nothing is impossible, nothing beyond doing or knowing. The world is theirs and everything in it. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Time is the central mystery of our existence. It confines and defines us in many ways. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

You see, this universe we inhabit is made up of billions of galaxies literally beyond counting and this is only one universe. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Unbelievers enjoy the security of their unbelief; there is great confidence in ignorance. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Humility, if it comes at all, almost always comes too late. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The Otherworld does not supply the meaning of life. Rather, the Otherworld describes being alive. Life, in all its glory - warts and all, so to speak. The Otherworld provides meaning by example, by exhibition, by illustration if you will. ... Through the Otherworld we learn what it is be be alive, to be human: good and evil, heartbreak and ecstasy, victory and defeat, everything. ... where does one first learn loyalty? Or honor? Or any higher value, for that matter? ... Where does one learn to value the beauty of a forest and to revere it?'
In nature?'
Not at all. This can easily be proven by the fact that so many among us do not revere the forests at all - do not even see them, in fact. You know the people I am talking about. You have seen them and their works in the world. They are the ones who rape the land, who cut down forests and despoil oceans, who oppress the poor and tyrannize the helpless, who live their lives as if nothing lay beyond the horizon of their own limited earth-bound visions. But I digress. The question before us is this: where does one first learn to see a forest as a thing of beauty, to honor it, to hold it dear for its own sake, to recognize its true value as a forest, and not just see it as a source of timber to be exploited, or a barrier to be hacked down in order to make room for a motorway? ... the mere presence of the Otherworld kindles in us the spark of higher consciousness, or imagination. It is the stories and tale and visions of th ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

God has always worked through the small, the insignificant, the powerless - it seems to be sewn into the very fabric of the universe. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I tell you the truth, a man may not make himself king; only the blessing of him who holds the kingship can elevate a man to that high place. For sovereignty is a sacred trust that may not be bartered or sold; still less may it be stolen or taken by force. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Great Light, the Enemy's power is so fragile! The devils can use only what we ourselves will give them. Do you see? Give them nothing and their power fails; it falls like a spent arrow, like a blade broken and blunted. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I took him by the arm to steady him. He opened his eyes slowly, the bright golden gleam now darkened with pain and sorrow. "Morgian!' he uttered, his voice strangled with grief. "It was Morgian ... ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

For the Creator, the past is never lost, never beyond recovery - because it can always be reclaimed by weaving it into a wider pattern of ultimate goodness so that even the most horrendous disasters of life may come to play a significant part in achieving the intended purpose of Creation. In this way, the past can be redeemed. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The Queen of Air and Darkness tilted back her head and laughed. A more ghastly sound I hope never to hear. 'Do you think I care about these trifles?'
'Murder is no trifle, woman,' Arthur said.
'No? How many men have you killed, Great King? How many have you slain without cause? How many did you cut down that you might have spared? How many died because you in your battle-rage would not heed their pleas for mercy?'
The High King opened his mouth to speak, but could make no answer. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Raising an army of king's men with the king in an enemy prison?" Tuck queried. "What is difficult about that?" "I don't think he even has an army." "Well, that would make it slightly more tricky, I suppose," remarked Tuck. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

A king is a king, but a bard is the heart and soul of the people; he is their life in song, and the lamp which guides their steps along the paths of destiny. A bard is the essential spirit of the clan; he is the linking ring, the golden cord which unites the manifold ages of the clan, binding all that is past with all that is yet to come. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I knew, even as we touched that I had never wanted anything more in all my life. All my crabbed cravings were as a cupful of pond water beside the vast ocean of longing I felt surging through me. My head swam; my eyes blurred. I burned from the inside out as if my blood and bones were consumed with liquid fire. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

If she had ever once in her life given the realities of life in seventeenth-century Bohemia a fleeting thought - and she most certainly had not - she would have pictured a world of superstition and suffering where obscenely rich and powerful aristocrats oppressed the miserable mass of grimy peasants whose lives were nasty, brutish, and short. Yet the folk she observed bustling around her, while admittedly grimy and short, seemed a fairly happy lot - judging solely from the air of amiable bonhomie permeating the Old Town square. Everywhere she looked, people were smiling, laughing, greeting one another with formal handshakes and kisses. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

One of this surprised me; it was as if this meeting between us was foreordained by a force greater than either of us. I know I had the events wheeling swiftly over a well-traveled course to a destination long ago established. I felt as if I was merely saying the words I had been destined to say. If there was no surprise, neither was there fear or alarm. The circumstance seemed both right and natural
as if we had talked this way a thousand times, and knew well what the other would say ... This is the only truth we can know in life. Nothing else in the world is certain
only this: that a man and woman should come together in love. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It was Arthur's welcome alone, I believe, which turned the tide of misery for Merlin. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

We are closest to Christ when sharing the world's misery. Think you Jesus came to remove our pains? Wherever did you get that notion? The Lord came, not to remove our suffering, but to show us the way through it to the glory beyond. We can overcome our travails. That is the promise of the cross. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The long and painstakingly detailed discussions seemed to me nothing more than the incessant nattering of toads in a water filled ditch and of no greater consequence. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The human race seems to love nothing more than a long detour. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Time is short and life fleeting and that nothing matters except that which is eternal. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

The Emrys! The Emrys is here!'
Merlin shook his head in astonishment. 'Has it come to this?' he wondered. 'Even small children know me by sight. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Whatever is done cannot be undone, but whatever is lost can sometimes be found. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

As I understand it, the Celts venerated all sorts of plexus-type things: the seashore, dawn, dusk, the edge of the forest - anything that was neither here nor there, so to speak. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Unlike the tedious priests of Mithras and Minerva - so careful, so exact, so smug in the enactment of their obscure rituals - old Potitus saw no need to weary heaven with ceaseless ceremony or meaningless repetition. "God knows the cry of our hearts," he would say, "before it ever reaches our lips. So speak it out and have done with it. Then get about your business." My ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Early man recognised these lines of force and marked them out on the landscape with, well, any old thing, really standing stones, ditches, mounds, tumps, sacred wells, and that sort of thing. And, later on, with churches, market crosses, crossroads, and whatnot. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Pity." The elder gentleman sniffed. "Sad, really. Names are very important." "It's a matter of taste, surely." "Nothing of the sort," replied the elder Cosimo. "People get named all sorts of things - that I will concede. Whimsy, ignorance, sudden inspiration - all play a part. But if anyone guessed how monumentally important it was, the process would be taken a lot more seriously. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

When heaven joins the battle against you, who could stand? ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Only a fool demands proof of what he already knows. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Arthur!' I cried, but my voice was lost in the battle roar. The seething waters of the enemy host closed over the place where he had been. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Apart from pleasure, beauty also kindles imagination, hope and encouragement. If beauty ceased to exist, we would, in a very real sense, cease to exist
for we would be no longer who we are. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

She [Mérian] shook her head sadly. 'What Bran wants is impossible.'
'Well,' I [Will] said, 'I wouldn't be too sure. I have seen the lone canny fox outwit the hunter often enough to know that it matters little how many horses and men you have. All the wealth and weapons in the world will not catch the fox that refuses to be caught. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

People did not go jumping from one place to another with nothing in between. It simply did not happen. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I know nothing of any phantom,' replied Aethelfrith. 'What sort of phantom is it presumed to be?'
'Why,' replied the merchant, 'it takes the form of a great giant of a bird. Men hereabouts call it King Raven.'
'Do they indeed?' wondered the friar, much intrigued. 'What does it look like - this giant bird?'
The merchant stared at him in disbelief. 'By the rood, man! Are you dim? It looks like a thumping great raven. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Contrary to what many may think, immortality is not a fairy tale invented to compensate for an unhappy life. Rather, it is the perception shared by nearly all sentient beings that our conscious lives are not bounded by this time and space. We are not merely lumps of animate matter. We are living spirits - we all feel this innately. And in our deepest hearts, we know that we can only find ultimate fulfilment in union with the supreme spiritual reality - a reality that appears, even during this earthly life, to take us beyond the narrow limits of time. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

It is right to pay heed to the stories of our people, for that is how we learn who we are and what is required of us in this life and the life beyond. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

-the future is a most marvellous creation. For in it lies all the mystery of raw potentiality-a boundless reservoir of all that could be-formed by the illimitable interactions of conscious human beings with their individual environments, circumstances, and conditions, and in concert with their fellow humans. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

All that winter's day and far into the night the kings twisted and squirmed, but Merlin held them in his iron grasp and would not let go. He became first a rock, and then a mountain in Arthur's defence. Arthur stood equally unmoved. No power on earth could have prevailed against them ... ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

See here, if a simple act of kindness or generosity, such as buying a loaf of bread for some poor working women, can mean that wholesale death and destruction will be avoided why, a man would be a monster who had it in his power to alleviate all that suffering yet stood by and did nothing. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

None of us ever knows what impact we have on the world around us. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Oh, but once my memories had pulsed with the blood-heat of life. In desperation, I forced myself to recall that once, I had walked with kings and conversed in languages never heard in this land. Once I had stood at the prow of a Sea Wolf ship and sailed oceans unknown to seamen here. I had ridden horses through desert lands, and dined on exotic foods in Arab tents. I had roamed Constantinople's fabled streets, and bowed before the Holy Roman Emperor's throne. I had been a slave, a spy, a sailor. Advisor and confidant of lords, I had served Arabs, Byzantines, and barbarians. I had worn captive's rags, and the silken robes of a Sarazen prince. Once I had held a jeweled knife and taken a life with my own hand. Yes, and once I had held a loving woman in my arms and kissed her warm and willing lips ... Death would have been far, far better than the gnawing, aching emptiness that was now my life. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

For if there was to be any transformation in the spiritual orientation of the pilgrim's soul, that change would take place not on arrival as if by magic, but in the long, hard work of The Way. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Jump blind and you might find yourself on the rim of a raging volcano, or smack in the middle of a battlefield during a savage war, or on a swiftly tilting ice floe in a tempest-tossed sea. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I searched until I panted for breath, but could not find it. The solid stone structure was nowhere to be seen. The house was gone - and Merlin with it. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

He sighed and shook his head slowly. 'And there will be no bringing back the light once it has gone. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

I may speak freely, my lord," began Tuck. "I doubt anything in heaven or earth could prevent you," remarked Bran. "Speak, priest. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

To see evil and call it good, mocks God. Worse, it makes goodness meaningless. A word without meaning is an abomination, for when the word passes beyond understanding the very thing the word stands for passes out of the world and cannot be recalled. ~ Stephen R. Lawhead

Life is a school of the spirit, Aidan," Ruadh intoned with gentle insistence. "Learning is our soul's requirement, and ~ Stephen R. Lawhead