--- title: "1 Civil servants Quotes By Paul Torday" description: "1 Civil servants quotes by Paul Torday. Plus more from Paul Torday and more Civil servants sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/paul-torday-31508_another-world_in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-un_983447.jpg" --- > [“In this country faith is absolute and universal. The choice, if there is a choice, is made at birth. Everyone believes. For these people, God is a near neighbour. I thought of Sundays at home when I was a child,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-universal-the-choice-if-there/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/paul-torday-31508_another-world_in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-un_983447.jpg) ## More by Paul Torday > [“When you're in trouble, go and see your mother.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/when-you-re-in-trouble-go-and-see-your-mother/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [Faith is the cure that heals all troubles. Without faith there is no hope and no love. Faith comes before hope, and before love.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/faith-is-the-cure-that-heals-all-troubles-without-faith-there-is-no/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“And then, as slowly as the light fades on a calm winter evening, something went out of our relationship. I say that selfishly. Perhaps…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/and-then-as-slowly-as-the-light-fades-on-a-calm-winter-evening/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [We believe that faith is the cure that heals all troubles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/we-believe-that-faith-is-the-cure-that-heals-all-troubles/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“Images of people in the Middle East dressing like Westerners, spending like Westerners, that is what the voters watching TV here at home want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/images-of-people-in-the-middle-east-dressing-like-westerners-spending/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“Farrukh, tonight you have won a dishwasher”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/farrukh-tonight-you-have-won-a-dishwasher/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“He realised that comfortable surroundings, indeed the gilded surroundings of his own life until then, and all the things that went with that, don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/he-realised-that-comfortable-surroundings-indeed-the-gilded/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [It would be so good to settle down and become part of somewhere again, instead of constantly passing through](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/it-would-be-so-good-to-settle-down-and-become-part-of-somewhere-again/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [It would be a miracle of God if it happened. I know it... If God wills it, the summer rains will fill the wadis...…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/it-would-be-a-miracle-of-god-if-it-happened-i-know-it-if-god-wills-it/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“In this country faith is absolute and universal. The choice, if there is a choice, is made at birth. Everyone believes. For these people,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-universal-the-choice-if-there/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“I am in another world, a world where faith and prayer are instinctive and universal, where not to pray, not to be able to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/i-am-in-another-world-a-world-where-faith-and-prayer-are-instinctive/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [I taught you to take the first step: to learn to believe in belief. And one day you will take the second step and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/i-taught-you-to-take-the-first-step-to-learn-to-believe-in-belief-and/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“Harriet turned round, and we both saw a girl walking towards us. She was dark-skinned and thin, not veiled but dressed in a sitara,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/harriet-turned-round-and-we-both-saw-a-girl-walking-towards-us-she/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“For once in his life, Norman has acted rather than gone to a meeting. And this is where it has landed him.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/for-once-in-his-life-norman-has-acted-rather-than-gone-to-a-meeting/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) > [“Then in a moment, in that vast space of rocks and sky and scorching sun, I understood that he had not meant religious faith,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/then-in-a-moment-in-that-vast-space-of-rocks-and-sky-and-scorching/) [Paul Torday](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-torday/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civil-servants/paul-torday/#itemlist", "name": "1 Civil servants Quotes By Paul Torday", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In this country faith is absolute and universal. The choice, if there is a choice, is made at birth. Everyone believes. For these people, God is a near neighbour. I thought of Sundays at home when I was a child, buttoned up in an uncomfortable tweed jacket and forced to go to Sunday communion. I remember mouthing the hymns without really singing, peering between my fingers at the rest of the congregation when I was supposed to be praying, twisting in my seat during the sermon, aching with impatience for the whole boring ritual to be over. I can’t remember when I last went to church. I must have been since Mary and I were married but I can’t remember when. I don’t know anyone who does go to church now. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? I know I live amongst scientists and civil servants, and Mary’s friends are all bankers or economists, so perhaps we are not typical. You still see people coming out of church on Sunday morning, chatting on the steps, shaking hands with the vicar, as you drive past on your way to get the Sunday papers, relieved you are too old now to be told to go. But no one I know goes any more. We never talk about it. We never think about it. I cannot easily remember the words of the Lord’s Prayer. We have moved on from religion. Instead of going to church, which would never occur to us, Mary and I go to Tesco together on Sundays. At least, that is what we did when she still lived in London. We never have time to shop during the week and Saturdays are too busy. But on Sunday our local Tesco is just quiet enough to get round without being hit in the ankles all the time by other people’s shopping carts. We take our time wheeling the shopping cart around the vast cavern, goggling at the flatscreen TVs we cannot afford, occasionally tossing some minor luxury into the trolley that we can afford but not justify. I suppose shopping in Tesco on Sunday morning is in itself a sort of meditative experience: in some way a shared moment with the hundreds of other shoppers all wheeling their shopping carts, and a shared moment with Mary, come to that. Most of the people I see shopping on Sunday morning have that peaceful, dreamy expression on their faces that I know is on ours. That is our Sunday ritual. Now, I am in a different country, with a different woman by my side. But I feel as if I am in more than just a different country; I am in another world, a world where faith and prayer are instinctive and universal, where not to pray, not to be able to pray, is an affliction worse than blindness, where disconnection from God is worse than losing a limb.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Torday" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-torday/in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-universal-the-choice-if-there/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/paul-torday-31508_another-world_in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-un_983447.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/paul-torday-31508_another-world_in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-un_983447.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3ac/paul-torday-31508_another-world_in-this-country-faith-is-absolute-and-un_983447.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In this country faith is absolute and universal. 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