“Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should be not like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil, that shelters every kind of bird and beast and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place. Does the tree say to the sparrow, 'Get out, you don't belong here?' Does the tree say to the hungry man, 'This fruit is not for you?' Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?”

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About Philip Pullman

English writer, best known for His Dark Materials

Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman is an English writer, best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials. He is a contemporary author whose work has reached a wide readership, with 119 quotes on this site. His Dark Materials began with Northern Lights in 1995, which won the Carnegie Medal and later the "Carnegie of Carnegies". The third volume, The Amber Spyglass, won the Whitbread Award. He later began the companion trilogy The Book of Dust in 2017, and its final novel, The Rose Field, was published in October 2025.

More from Philip Pullman (119 quotes) →

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Books by Philip Pullman

Northern Lights

1999

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The Subtle Knife

2002

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The Amber Spyglass

2001

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His Dark Materials

2007

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The ruby in the smoke (Sally Lockhart #1)

1985

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