Sydney Carter Quotes

22 Sourced Quotes

There are obvious problems with so many denominations in schools today, but I had collective worship at school and I do not think it is a bad thing.

Sydney Carter
Come holy harlequin!
Shake the world and shock the hypocrite
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.
Let the feast of love begin,
Let the hungry all come in,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.

Sydney Carter
"With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key
they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he.
"Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall,
but the light will be shining at the end of it all."

Sydney Carter
There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night
till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light,
for the light is forever and the light it is free,
"And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.

Sydney Carter
It's God they ought to crucify
Instead of you and me,
I said to the carpenter
A-hanging on the tree.

Sydney Carter
All shall be well, I'm telling you, let the winter come and go
All shall be well again, I know.

Sydney Carter
So what do you believe in?
Nothing fixed or final,
all the while I
travel a miracle. I doubt,
and yet
I walk upon the water.

Sydney Carter
One more step along the world I go,
One more step along the world I go,
From the old things to the new
Keep me travelling along with You.

Sydney Carter
Loud are the bells of Norwich and the people come and go.
Here by the tower of Julian, I tell them what I know.

Sydney Carter
They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That'll never, never die;
I'll live in you
If you'll live in me —
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.

Sydney Carter
They are songs which can be sung in a Christian context, but they all had to mean something to me because I was often on the edge of not believing. The songs certainly have not made my fortune, but I am still grateful for the royalties when they come in.

Sydney Carter
I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.

Sydney Carter
Coming and going by the dance, I see
That what I am not is a part of me.
Dancing is all that I can ever trust,
The dance is all I am, the rest is dust.
I will believe my bones and live by what
Will go on dancing when my bones are not.

Sydney Carter
They buried my body
And they thought I'd gone,
But I am the Dance,
And I still go on.

Sydney Carter
I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.
Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't...

Sydney Carter
Love, like the yellow daffodil, is Lord of all I know.

Sydney Carter
Faith is more basic than language or theology. Faith is the response to something which is calling us from the timeless part of our reality. Faith may be encouraged by what has happened in the past, or what is thought to have happened in the past, but the only proof of it is in the future. Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith will still go dancing on. Even though (because it rejects a doctrine) it is now described as "doubt". This, I believe, is the kind of faith that Christ commended.

Sydney Carter
There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man,
it's the light that was shining when the world began.
There's a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew
and a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.

Sydney Carter
Your holy hearsay is not evidence.
Give me the good news in the present tense.
What happened nineteen hundred years ago
May not have happened.
How am I to know?
So shut your Bibles up and show me how
The Christ you talk about
Is living now.

Sydney Carter
Teach the crippled how to leap,
Throw their crutches on a heap,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.
Rock, love, carry it away,
Lift the world up by your levity,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.

Sydney Carter
I danced in the morning
When the world was begun
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth—
At Bethlehem I had my birth.
Dance then wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.

Sydney Carter
"If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?"
"But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!"
"Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he,
"For the truth is more holy than the book, to me."

Sydney Carter