WIST Quotations

Lewis, C.S. -- “Answers to Questions on Christianity”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Answers to Questions on Christianity”

Lewis, C.S. -- “Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare” (1936), Rehabilitations and Other Essays (1939)

Dave — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 22:06:41 +0000

For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare” (1936), Rehabilitations and Other Essays (1939)

First given as a lecture at Manchester University.

Lewis, C.S. -- “Learning in War-Time,” The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (1965)

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:15:56 +0000

Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Learning in War-Time,” The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (1965)

Lewis, C.S. -- “Learning in War-Time”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods, and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Learning in War-Time”

Lewis, C.S. -- “Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)

Dave — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:18:02 +0000

The word religion is extremely rare in the New Testament or the writings of mystics. The reason is simple. Those attitudes and practices to which we give the collective name of religion are themselves concerned with religion hardly at all. To be religious is to have one’s attention fixed on God and on one’s neighbor in relation to God. Therefore, almost by definition, a religious man, or a man when he is being religious, is not thinking about religion; he hasn’t the time. Religion is what we (or he himself at a later moment) call his activity from the outside.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- “Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)

Dave — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:02:31 +0000

Mr. Forster feels anxious because he dreads Theocracy. Now if he expects to see a Theocracy set up in modern England, I myself believe his expectation to be wholly chimerical. But I wish to make it very clear that, if I thought the thing in the least probable, I should feel about it exactly as he does. I fully embrace the maxim (which he borrows from a Christian) that ‘all power corrupts.’ I would go further. The loftier the pretensions of the power, the more meddlesome, inhuman, and oppressive it will be. Theocracy is the worst of all possible governments. All political power is at best a necessary evil: but it is least evil when its sanctions are most modest and commonplace, when it claims no more than to be useful or convenient and sets itself strictly limited objectives. Anything transcendental or spiritual, or even anything very strongly ethical, in its pretensions is dangerous and encourages it to meddle with our private lives. Let the shoemaker stick to his last. Thus the Renaissance doctrine of Divine Right is for me a corruption of monarchy; Rousseau’s General Will, of democracy; racial mysticisms, of nationality. And Theocracy, I admit and even insist, is the worst corruption of all.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Lilies that Fester,” The Twentieth Century (Apr 1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- “Notes on the Way,” Time and Tide (29 Apr 1944)

Dave — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:54:56 +0000

Democracy demands that little men shouldn’t take big ones too serious; it dies when it’s full of little men who think they are big themselves.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Notes on the Way,” Time and Tide (29 Apr 1944)

Lewis, C.S. -- “On Forgiveness”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“On Forgiveness”

Lewis, C.S. -- “On Forgiveness”

Dave — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 05:15:30 +0000

When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, “But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.” Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart — every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“On Forgiveness”

Lewis, C.S. -- “On Forgiveness”

Dave — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 04:02:34 +0000

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord’s Prayer; was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“On Forgiveness”

Lewis, C.S. -- “On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” lecture, Library Association Bournemouth Conference (29 Apr – 2 May 1952)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” lecture, Library Association Bournemouth Conference (29 Apr – 2 May 1952)

Reprinted in On Stories (1966). Referencing 1 Corinthians 13:11.

Lewis, C.S. -- “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”

Dave — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 21:14:55 +0000

Suspicion often creates what it suspects.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Screwtape Proposes a Toast”

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)

Dave — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0000

There are many different ways of bringing people into his Kingdom, even some ways that I specially dislike! I have therefore learned to be cautious in my judgment.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)

Full text.

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)

Dave — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:59:16 +0000

Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Final Interview of C. S. Lewis,” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Decision (Sep 1963)

Full text.

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Gods Return to Earth,” Time and Tide (14 Aug 1954)

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:18:29 +0000

Such a book has of course its predestined readers, even now more numerous and more critical than is always realised. To them a reviewer need say little, except that here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Gods Return to Earth,” Time and Tide (14 Aug 1954)

Book review of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. Full text.

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Dave — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:18:22 +0000

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously — no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner — no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat — the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 13:49:51 +0000

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 18:23:23 +0000

If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Lewis, C.S. -- “The World’s Last Night”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We do not know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who are the minor characters. The Author knows. … But we, never seeing the play from the outside, … cannot tell at what moment the end ought to come. That it will come when it ought, we may be sure. … That it has a meaning we may be sure, but we cannot see it. When it is over, we may be told. We are led to expect that the Author will have something to say to each of us who has played. The playing it well is what matters infinitely.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The World’s Last Night”

Lewis, C.S. -- “Vivisection,” New England Anti-Vivisection Society pamphlet (1947)

Dave — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:53:48 +0000

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“Vivisection,” New England Anti-Vivisection Society pamphlet (1947)

Collected in God in the Dock, Part 2, ch. 9 (1970) [ed. Hooper].

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not now either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening towards active assistance, is simply bad.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The value given to the testimony of any feeling must depend on our whole philosophy, not our whole philosophy on a feeling.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I’m not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There seems no plan because it’s all plan. There seems no center because it’s all center.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

Lewis, C.S. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 13:19:14 +0000

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God, do you learn.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Attributed)

There are several variants, but no citation for this quotation. See Pliny the Younger.

Lewis, C.S. -- (Spurious)

Dave — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 23:33:47 +0000

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Spurious)

Not found in Lewis' writings, and not considered authentic. There is some similarity to this Lewis quotation. More discussion here:

Lewis, C.S. -- (Spurious)

Dave — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 06:12:32 +0000

When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Spurious)

Popularly attributed to Lewis, but no citation is ever given, and it is not found in searches of his written works.

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000

Your bid–for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity–will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high. Nothing will shake a man–or at any rate a man like me–out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

What do people mean when they say, “I am not afraid of God because I know He is good”? Have they never been to a dentist?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:52:08 +0000

Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:14:54 +0000

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.

Unless, of course, you can literally believe all that stuff about family reunions “on the further shore,” pictured in entirely earthly terms. But that is all unscriptural, all out of bad hymns and lithographs. There’s not a word of it in the Bible. And it rings false. We know it couldn’t be like that. Reality never repeats. The exact same thing is never taken away and given back. How well the Spiritualists bait their hook! “Things on this side are not so different after all.” There are cigars in Heaven. For that is what we should all like. The happy past restored.

And that, just that, is what I cry out for, with mad, midnight endearments and entreaties spoken into the empty air.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 14:19:14 +0000

Bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love. It follows marriage as normally as marriage follows courtship or as autumn follows summer.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:52:31 +0000

Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed (1961)

Dave — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:33:06 +0000

What sort of a lover am I to think so much about my affliction and so much less about hers? Even the insane call, ‘Come back,’ is all for my own sake. I never even raised the question whether such a return, if it were possible, would be good for her. I want her back as an ingredient in the restoration of my past. Could I have wished her anything worse? Having got once through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do over again? They call Stephen the first martyr. Hadn’t Lazarus the rawer deal?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed, ch. 1 (1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000

Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not, “So, there’s no God after all,” but, “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed, ch. 1 (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed, ch. 1 (1961)

Dave — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:17:32 +0000

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.
At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed, ch. 1 (1961)

After the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. Opening words.

Lewis, C.S. -- A Grief Observed, ch. 4 (1960)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:50:09 +0000

Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than minority of them — never become conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed, ch. 4 (1960)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)

Dave — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:26:01 +0000

It is in their ‘good’ characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self-revelations.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)

Dave — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:09:27 +0000

People blush at praise — not only praise of their bodies, but praise of anything that is theirs.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to “Paradise Lost” (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)

Dave — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:40:46 +0000

Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- An Experiment in Criticism (1961)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:28:07 +0000

In the moral sphere, every act of justice or charity involves putting ourselves in the other person’s place and thus transcending our own competitive particularity.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
An Experiment in Criticism (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- An Experiment in Criticism, Epilogue (1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 06:11:16 +0000

But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
An Experiment in Criticism, Epilogue (1961)

Closing words.

Lewis, C.S. -- God in the Dock

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We must sometimes get away from the Authorized Version, if for no other reason, simply because it is so beautiful and so solemn. Beauty exalts, but beauty also lulls. Early associations endear, but they also confuse. Through that beautiful solemnity, the transporting or horrifying realities of which the Book tells may come to us blunted and disarmed, and we may only sigh with tranquil veneration when we ought to be burning with shame, or struck dumb with terror, or carried out of ourselves by ravishing hopes and adorations.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock

Lewis, C.S. -- God in the Dock, “Is Progress Possible?” (1958)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands “Thus saith the Lord,” it lies, and lies dangerously.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, “Is Progress Possible?” (1958)

Lewis, C.S. -- God in the Dock, “Myth Become Fact” (1970)

Dave — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:34:11 +0000

You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humour while roaring with laughter.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, “Myth Become Fact” (1970)

Lewis, C.S. -- God in the Dock, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment” (1970)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment” (1970)

Lewis, C.S. -- God in the Dock, Part 2, ch. 7 “Scraps,” #4 (1970)

Dave — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 18:35:04 +0000

“Praying for particular things,” said I, “always seems to me like advising God how to run the world. Wouldn’t it be wiser to assume that He knows best?”

“On the same principle,” said he, “I suppose you never ask a man next to you to pass the salt, because God knows best whether you ought to have salt or not. And I suppose you never take an umbrella, because God knows best whether you ought to be wet or dry.”

“That’s quite different,” I protested.

“I don’t see why,” said he. “The odd thing is that He should let us influence the course of events at all. But since He lets us do it in one way, I don’t see why He shouldn’t let us do it in the other.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
God in the Dock, Part 2, ch. 7 “Scraps,” #4 (1970)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters of C.S. Lewis (10 Dec. 1956)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Indeed, in so far as things unseen are manifested by the things seen, one might from one point of view call the whole material universe an allegory.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters of C.S. Lewis (10 Dec. 1956)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters of C.S. Lewis (13 Mar 1956)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Well, let’s go on disagreeing but don’t let us judge. What doesn’t suit us may suit possible converts of a different type. My model here is the behaviour of the congregation at a ‘Russian Orthodox’ service, where some sit, some lie on their faces, some stand, some kneel, some walk about, and no one takes the slightest idea of what anyone else is doing. That is good sense, good manners, and good Christianity.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters of C.S. Lewis (13 Mar 1956)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters of C.S. Lewis (2 Aug. 1946)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Apologetic work is so dangerous to one’s faith. A doctrine never seems dimmer to me than when I have just successfully defended it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters of C.S. Lewis (2 Aug. 1946)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters of C.S. Lewis (29 Apr. 1959)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters of C.S. Lewis (29 Apr. 1959)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters of C.S. Lewis (undated)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

God loves us; not because we are loveable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but because He delights to give.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters of C.S. Lewis (undated)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to an American Lady (28 Mar. 1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often themselves quite mistaken as to what their motives are.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to an American Lady (28 Mar. 1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to an American Lady (9 Jan 1961)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

May God’s grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think — much less, speak — of their sins. One’s own are a much more profitable theme! And if, on consideration, one can find no faults on one’s own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to an American Lady (9 Jan 1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to Malcolm

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

And I also remember that my apparent self — this clown or hero or super — under his grease-paint is a real person with an off-stage life. The dramatic person could not tread the stage unless he concealed a real person: unless the real and unknown I existed, I would not even make mistakes about the imagined me. And in prayer this real I struggles to speak, for once, from his real being, and to address, for once, not the other actors, but — what shall I call Him? The Author, for He invented us all? The Producer, for He controls all? Or the Audience, for He watches, and will judge, the performance?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to Malcolm

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to Malcolm

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I have called my material surroundings a stage set. In this I can act. And you may well say “act”. For what I call “myself” (for all practical, everyday purposes) is also a dramatic construction; memories, glimpses in the shavinglass, and snatches of the very fallible activity called “introspection”, are the principal ingredients. Normally I call this construction “me”‘ and the stage set “the real world”. … I cannot, in the flesh, leave the stage, either to go behind the scenes or to take my seat in the pit; but I can remember that these regions exist.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to Malcolm

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to Malcolm, ch. 12

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Suppose I pray that you may be given grace to withstand your besetting sin (short list of candidates for this post will be forwarded on demand). Well, all the work has to be done by God and you. If I pray against my own besetting sin there will be work for me. One sometimes fights shy of admitting an act to be a sin for this very reason.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to Malcolm, ch. 12

Lewis, C.S. -- Letters to Malcolm, ch. 15

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We should never ask of anything “Is it real?,” for everything is real. The proper question is “A real what?,” e.g., a real snake or real delirium tremens?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letters to Malcolm, ch. 15

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 04:12:52 +0000

If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married’’, then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 05:03:54 +0000

But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from ‘being in love’ — is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, “Faith” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 13:59:29 +0000

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Faith” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, “Let’s Pretend” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 12:56:36 +0000

When a young man who has been going to church in a routine way honestly realises that he does not believe in Christianity and stops going — provided he does it for honesty’s sake and not just to annoy his parents — the spirit of Christ is probably nearer to him then than it ever was before.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Let’s Pretend” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, “Let’s Pretend” (1952)

Dave — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 06:14:45 +0000

We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself.

Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Let’s Pretend” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, 3.9 (1952)

Dave — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:15:15 +0000

Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, 3.9 (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, 4.7 (1952 ed.)

Dave — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:26:41 +0000

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, 4.7 (1952 ed.)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Bk. III, ch. 10

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Bk. III, ch. 10

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Bk. IV, ch. 7

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Bk. IV, ch. 7

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Book 1, ch. 5 “We Have Cause to be Uneasy” (1952)

Dave — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 23:11:16 +0000

Progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Book 1, ch. 5 “We Have Cause to be Uneasy” (1952)

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio (27 Aug 1941) under the title "What Can We Do About It?" Reprinted first in Broadcast Talks (1943) (US title The Case for Christianity (1944)).

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Book 2 “What Christians Believe,” ch. 1 “The Rival Conceptions of God” (1943)

Dave — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:08:10 +0000

Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Book 2 “What Christians Believe,” ch. 1 “The Rival Conceptions of God” (1943)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Book 3 “Christian Behavior,” ch. 7 “Forgiveness” (1952)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Book 3 “Christian Behavior,” ch. 7 “Forgiveness” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Book 3, ch. 6 “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:54:00 +0000

What we call ‘being in love’ is a glorious state, and, in several ways, good for us. It helps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty, and it sub-ordinates (especially at first) our merely animal sexuality; in that sense, love is the great conqueror of lust. No one in his senses would deny that being in love is far better than either common sensuality or cold self-centredness.

But, as I said before, ‘the most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of our own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs’. Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Book 3, ch. 6 “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, ch. 7 “Forgiveness” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 14:20:59 +0000

Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves — to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 7 “Forgiveness” (1952)

See Matthew 5:43-45.

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, ch. 10 “Nice People or New Men” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 15:33:25 +0000

If conversion to Christianity makes no improvements in a man’s outward actions — if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before — then I think we must suspect that his “conversion” was largely imaginary; and after one’s original conversion, every time one thinks one has made an advance, that is the test to apply. Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in “religion” mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 10 “Nice People or New Men” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, ch. 3 “Social Morality” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:06:57 +0000

No one can settle how much we ought to give. I’m afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare,

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 3 “Social Morality” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, ch. 6 “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 05:02:19 +0000

The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 6 “Christian Marriage” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, ch. 8 (1952)

Dave — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 13:55:45 +0000

This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects — education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects — military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden — that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, ch. 8 (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, Preface (1943)

Dave — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:47:36 +0000

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Preface (1943)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 3.11 (1952)

Dave — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:56:54 +0000

You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. … You never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 3.11 (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 3.11 (1952)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:19:14 +0000

The first step toward humility is to realize that one is proud.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 3.11 (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 4.1 (1952)

Dave — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:20:48 +0000

The world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, rev. ed., 4.1 (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- Miracles (1947)

Dave — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 14:13:49 +0000

It is a profound mistake to imagine that Christianity ever intended to dissipate the bewilderment and even the terror, the sense of our own nothingness, which come upon us when we think about the nature of things. It comes to intensify them. Without such sensations there is no religion. Many a man, brought up in the glib profession of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading Astronomy to realise for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Miracles (1947)

Lewis, C.S. -- Miracles, ch. 1

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Miracles, ch. 1

Lewis, C.S. -- Prince Caspian (1951)

Dave — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:03:11 +0000

‘You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,’ said Aslan. ‘And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth.’

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Prince Caspian (1951)

Lewis, C.S. -- Prince Caspian (1951)

Dave — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:42:37 +0000

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Prince Caspian (1951)

Lewis, C.S. -- Prince Caspian (1951)

Dave — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 01:39:01 +0000

“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right—somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”

“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”

“Oh dear,” said Lucy.

“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me — what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Prince Caspian (1951)

Lewis, C.S. -- Reflections on the Psalms (1964)

Dave — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:54:06 +0000

The very man who has argued you down, will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Reflections on the Psalms (1964)

Lewis, C.S. -- Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 12

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. “How he’s grown!” we exclaim, “How time flies!” as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 12

Lewis, C.S. -- Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3 “The Cursings” (1958)

Dave — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:49:17 +0000

If the Divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much worse. Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst. Of all created beings the wickedest is one who originally stood in the immediate presence of God.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3 “The Cursings” (1958)

Full text.

Lewis, C.S. -- Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3 “The Cursings” (1958)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:21:31 +0000

There is no use talking as if forgiveness were easy. We all know the old joke, “You’ve given up smoking once; I’ve given it up a dozen times.” In the same way I could say of a certain man, “Have I forgiven him for what he did that day? I’ve forgiven him more times than I can count.” For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again. We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one offence.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3 “The Cursings” (1958)

Lewis, C.S. -- Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1966)

Dave — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:46:48 +0000

Many things — such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly — are done worst when we try hardest to do them.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1966)

Lewis, C.S. -- Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, “Edmund Spenser” (1966)

Dave — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:53:10 +0000

Many things — such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly — are done worst when we try hardest to do them.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, “Edmund Spenser” (1966)

Full text. This chapter of the book was originally printed in Major British Writers, ed. G. B. Harrison (1959).

Lewis, C.S. -- Surprised by Joy (1955)

Dave — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:40:05 +0000

The surest way of spoiling a pleasure [is] to start examining your satisfaction.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Surprised by Joy (1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- Surprised by Joy, ch. 14 (1955)

Dave — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:34:52 +0000

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him of whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Surprised by Joy, ch. 14 (1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- That Hideous Strength (1945)

Dave — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:04:19 +0000

[T]hat intimate laughter between fellow professionals, which of all earthly powers is strongest to make men do very bad things before they are yet, individually, very bad men.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
That Hideous Strength (1945)

Lewis, C.S. -- That Hideous Strength (1945)

Dave — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:44:20 +0000

“I suppose there are two views about everything,” said Mark.

“Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
That Hideous Strength (1945)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Abolition of Man

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‘people.’ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war…. Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest .

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Abolition of Man

Lewis, C.S. -- The Abolition of Man (1943)

Dave — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 22:03:14 +0000

The process which, if not checked, will abolish Man goes on apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. The methods may (at first) differ in brutality. But many a mild-eyed scientist in pince-nez, many a popular dramatist, many an amateur philosopher in our midst, means in the long run just the same as the Nazi rulers of Germany: ‘Traditional values are to be debunked’ and mankind to be cut out into some fresh shape at the will (which must, by hypothesis, be an arbitrary will) of some few lucky people in one lucky generation which has learned how to do it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Abolition of Man (1943)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Abolition of Man (1943)

Dave — Wed, 03 May 2017 03:19:55 +0000

The process which, if not checked, will abolish Man goes on apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. The methods may (at first) differ in brutality. But many a mild-eyed scientist in pince-nez, many a popular dramatist, many an amateur philosopher in our midst, means in the long run just the same as the Nazi rulers of Germany: ‘Traditional values are to be debunked’ and mankind to be cut out into some fresh shape at the will (which must, by hypothesis, be an arbitrary will) of some few lucky people in one lucky generation which has learned how to do it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Abolition of Man (1943)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Abolition of Man, ch. 1

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Abolition of Man, ch. 1

Lewis, C.S. -- The Case for Christianity (1942)

Dave — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:55:03 +0000

Whenever you find a man who says he doesn’t believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Case for Christianity (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Case for Christianity (1942)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:51:12 +0000

This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Case for Christianity (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Case for Christianity (1942)

Dave — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:00:30 +0000

Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can’t really get rid of it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Case for Christianity (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Four Loves

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up save in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Four Loves

Lewis, C.S. -- The Four Loves, ch. 3 “Friendship” (1960)

Dave — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:34:37 +0000

Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Four Loves, ch. 3 “Friendship” (1960)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Four Loves, ch. 4

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Four Loves, ch. 4

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

“Well,” says the ghostly ex-cleric, “really, you know, I am not aware of a thirst for some ready-made truth which puts an end to intellectual activity in the way you seem to be describing. Will it leave me the free play of Mind, Dick? I must insist on that, you know.”
“You have gone far wrong,” Dick replies, “Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given you than masturbation has to do with marriage”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There’s something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on. But there’s also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art. But lust is less likely to be made into a religion.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce, ch. 9

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

“Milton was right,” said my Teacher. “The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce, ch. 9

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce, ch. 9

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce, ch. 9

Lewis, C.S. -- The Great Divorce, ch. 9 (1946)

Dave — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:05:03 +0000

Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Great Divorce, ch. 9 (1946)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Horse and His Boy (1954)

Dave — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 02:47:48 +0000

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Horse and His Boy (1954)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Last Battle, ch. 15 (1956)

Dave — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:39:29 +0000

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Last Battle, ch. 15 (1956)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Last Battle, final words (1956)

Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:29:45 +0000

And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Last Battle, final words (1956)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (16 Nov. 1915)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There is something awfully nice about reading a book again, with all the half-unconscious memories it brings back.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (16 Nov. 1915)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (29 Dec. 1935)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, “Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.” I know I am very fortunate in that respect.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (29 Dec. 1935)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (30 May 1916)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (30 May 1916)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:29:37 +0000

‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver … ‘Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

Dave — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 19:21:28 +0000

“My dear young lady,” said the Professor, suddenly looking up with a very sharp expression at both of them, “there is one plan which no one has yet suggested and which is well worth trying.”

“What’s that?” said Susan.

“We might all try minding our own business,” said he. And that was the end of that conversation.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

Dave — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:58:27 +0000

“But do you really mean, sir,” said Peter, “that there could be other worlds — all over the place, just round the corner — like that?”

“Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor, taking off his spectacles and beginning to polish them, while he muttered to himself, “I wonder what they do teach them at these schools.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Magician’s Nephew (1955)

Dave — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:50:36 +0000

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Magician’s Nephew (1955)

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 14:49:12 +0000

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Magician’s Nephew, ch. 4 “The Bell and the Hammer” (1955)

Dave — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 23:46:59 +0000

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger,
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Magician’s Nephew, ch. 4 “The Bell and the Hammer” (1955)

Inscription below the bell in Charn.

Lewis, C.S. -- The Pilgrim’s Regress, Bk. 7, Ch. 9

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Pilgrim’s Regress, Bk. 7, Ch. 9

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Lay down this book and reflect for five minutes on the fact that all the great religions were first preached, and long practiced, in a world without chloroform.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

In some way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:12:58 +0000

Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:25:29 +0000

Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:01:40 +0000

The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why Our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:14:01 +0000

It is by human avarice or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and overwork.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:47:10 +0000

We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:35:19 +0000

Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 14:13:32 +0000

The golden apple of selfhood, thrown among the false gods, became an apple of discord because they scrambled for it. They did not know the first rule of the holy game, which is that every player must by all means touch the ball and then immediately pass it on. To be found with it in your hands is a fault: to cling to it, death. But when it flies to and fro among the players too swift for eye to follow, and the great master Himself leads the revelry, giving Himself eternally to His creatures in the generation, and back to Himself in the sacrifice, of the Word, then indeed the eternal dance ‘makes heaven drowsy with the harmony’. All pains and pleasures we have known on earth are early initiations in the movements of that dance: but the dance itself is strictly incomparable with the sufferings of this present time. As we draw nearer to its uncreated rhythm, pain and pleasure sink almost out of sight. There is joy in the dance, but it does not exist for the sake of joy. It does not even exist for the sake of good, or of love. It is Love Himself, and Good Himself, and therefore happy. It does not exist for us, but we for it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:47:30 +0000

The real trouble is that “kindness” is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that “his heart’s in the right place” and “he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy: it is not so easy, on the same grounds, to imagine oneself temperate, chaste, or humble. You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues. If, being cowardly, conceited and slothful, you have never yet done a fellow creature great mischief, that is only because your neighbour’s welfare has not yet happened to conflict with your safety, self-approval, or ease. Every vice leads to cruelty.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 17:30:39 +0000

The doors of Hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to come out of Hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man “wishes” to be happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain, ch. 10

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

[God] makes each soul unique. If He had no use for all these differences, I do not see why He should have created more souls than one. Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain, ch. 10

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain, ch. 3 “The Intolerable Compliment” (1940)

Dave — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 03:45:31 +0000

Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about ‘His glory’s diminution’? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God — though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain. Yet the call is not only to prostration and awe; it is to a reflection of the Divine life, a creaturely participation in the Divine attributes which is far beyond our present desires. We are bidden to ‘put on Christ’, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too little.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain, ch. 3 “The Intolerable Compliment” (1940)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain, ch. 8

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain, ch. 8

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screw-Tape Letters, #29 (1942)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screw-Tape Letters, #29 (1942)

See Johnson (1775), Stevenson (1880), Barrie (1922).

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:37:20 +0000

Music and silence — how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell — though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express — no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise — Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile — Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 03:24:38 +0000

It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very ‘spiritual’, that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother — the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for the imagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s ‘soul’ to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, ch. 26 (1982 ed. (1942))

Dave — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:31:27 +0000

She’s the sort of woman who lives for others — you can always tell the others by their haunted expression.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, ch. 26 (1982 ed. (1942))

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Letter 3 (1942)

Dave — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 17:48:48 +0000

In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Letter 3 (1942)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Letter XXVI

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A woman means by Unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Letter XXVI

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1942 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:08:43 +0000

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1942 ed.)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1961 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:51:02 +0000

In the plastic arts these symbols have steadily degenerated. Fra Angelico’s angels carry in their face and gesture the peace and authority of Heaven. Later come the chubby infantile nudes of Raphael; finally the soft, slim, girlish, and consolatory angels of nineteenth century art, shapes so feminine that they avoid being voluptuous only by their total insipidity — the frigid houris of a teatable paradise. They are a pernicious symbol. In Scripture the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying “Fear not.” The Victorian angel looks as if it were going to say, “There, there.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1961 ed.)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1961 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:58:04 +0000

At bottom, every ideal of style dictates not only how we should say things but what sort of things we may say.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Preface (1961 ed.)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, Preface to the 1961 edition (1961)

Dave — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 16:13:13 +0000

I like bats much better than bureaucrats. I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of “Admin.” The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, Preface to the 1961 edition (1961)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Screwtape Letters, rev. ed., Introduction (1942, 1982)

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:58:38 +0000

The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint … but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Screwtape Letters, rev. ed., Introduction (1942, 1982)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Silver Chair (1953)

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:23:10 +0000

‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,’ said the Lion.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Silver Chair (1953)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (1949)

Dave — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 15:21:30 +0000

We want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (1949)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Weight of Glory, “Membership” (1945)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Weight of Glory, “Membership” (1945)

Lewis, C.S. -- The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, “The Efficacy of Prayer” (1959)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, “The Efficacy of Prayer” (1959)

Lewis, C.S. -- The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, “The World’s Last Night” (1952)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Perfect love, we know, casteth out fear. But so do several other things

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, “The World’s Last Night” (1952)

Lewis, C.S. -- The World’s Last Night (1960)

Dave — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:44:18 +0000

To play well the scenes in which we are ‘on’ concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The World’s Last Night (1960)

Lewis, C.S. -- The World’s Last Night, “On Obstinacy in Belief” (1955)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

To love involves trusting the beloved beyond the evidence, even against much evidence. No man is our friend who believes in our good intentions only when they are proved. No man is our friend who will not be very slow to accept evidence against them. Such confidence, between one man and another, is in fact almost universally praised as a moral beauty, not blamed as a logical error.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The World’s Last Night, “On Obstinacy in Belief” (1955)

Lewis, C.S. -- Transposition and Other Addresses (1949)

Dave — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:58:49 +0000

He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself ….

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Transposition and Other Addresses (1949)

Lewis, C.S. -- Essay (1943-08-27), “Equality,” The Spectator

Dave — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 20:09:29 +0000

I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure. I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. Nor do most people — all the people who believe advertisements, and think in catchwords and spread rumours. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Essay (1943-08-27), “Equality,” The Spectator

Reprinted in Present Concerns (1986). See Lincoln.

Lewis, C.S. -- Essay (1950-10), “Historicism,” The Month, Vol. 4, No. 4 New Series (Vol. 190, No. 998 Old Series)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 20:06:12 +0000

There are inquiries in which scanty evidence is worth using. We may not be able to get certainty, but we can get probability, and half a loaf is better than no bread.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Essay (1950-10), “Historicism,” The Month, Vol. 4, No. 4 New Series (Vol. 190, No. 998 Old Series)

Regarding historical inquiry based on incomplete evidence. First collected in Christian Reflections (1967).

See also Howell (1659).

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter (27 Sep 1954)

Dave — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:33:22 +0000

‘Why has sex become man’s chief stumbling block?’ But has it? Or is it only the most recognisable of the stumbling blocks? I mean, we can mistake pride for a good conscience, and cruelty for zeal, and idleness for the peace of God et cetera. But when lust is upon us, then, owing to the obvious physical symptoms, we can’t pretend it is anything else. Is it perhaps only the least disguisable of our dangers.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter (27 Sep 1954)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter (29 Apr 1959)

Dave — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:12:29 +0000

We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter (29 Apr 1959)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Alan Griffiths (20 Dec 1946)

Dave — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 14:04:56 +0000

A great many people (not you) do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Alan Griffiths (20 Dec 1946)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Alan Griffiths (20 Dec 1946)

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:31:01 +0000

I still think the argument from design the weakest possible ground for Theism, and what may be called the argument from un-design the strongest for Atheism.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Alan Griffiths (20 Dec 1946)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Arthur Greaves (24 Dec 1930)

Dave — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:03:09 +0000

[O]ften when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you I don’t think so — the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Arthur Greaves (24 Dec 1930)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Arthur Greeves, Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. 2: 1931-1949 (2004)

Dave — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 22:00:24 +0000

There is always some peace in having submitted to the right. Don’t spoil it by worrying about the results, if you can help it. It is not your business to succeed (no one can be sure of that) but to do right: when you have done so, the rest lies with God ….

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Arthur Greeves, Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. 2: 1931-1949 (2004)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Father Peter Milward (6 May 1963)

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:41:15 +0000

You ask me in effect why I am not a Roman Catholic. If it comes to that, why am I not — and why are you not — a Presbyterian, a Quaker, a Mohammedan, a Hindu, or a Confucianist? After how prolonged and sympathetic study and on what grounds have we rejected these religions? I think those who press a man to desert the religion in which he has been bred and in which he believes he has found the means of Grace ought to produce positive reasons for the change — not demand from him reasons against all other religions. It would have to be all, wouldn’t it?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Father Peter Milward (6 May 1963)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (17 Jun 1963)

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:13:06 +0000

Remember, though we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round — we get afraid because we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting? Don’t you think Our Lord says to you ‘Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?’ Of course, this may not be the end. Then make it a good rehearsal.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (17 Jun 1963)

Discussing the closeness of death.

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (18 Aug 1956)

Dave — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 01:48:23 +0000

I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love everything too little. No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much — i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (18 Aug 1956)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (26 Oct 1962)

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 14:49:33 +0000

It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been ‘had for a sucker’ by any number of impostors: but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need. After all, the parable of the sheep and goats makes our duty perfectly plain, doesn’t it? Another thing that annoys me is when people say ‘Why did you give that man money? He’ll probably go and drink it.’ My reply is ‘But if I’d kept [it] I should probably have drunk it.’

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (26 Oct 1962)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (26 Oct 1962)

Dave — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 14:00:23 +0000

I am sorry to hear of the little dog’s death. The animal creation is a strange mystery. We can make some attempt to understand human suffering: but the sufferings of animals from the beginning of the world till now (inflicted not only by us but by one another) — what is one to think? And again, how strange that God brings us into such intimate relations with creatures of whose real purpose and destiny we remain forever ignorant. We know to some degree what angels and men are for. But what is a flea for, or a wild dog?

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne (26 Oct 1962)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Miss Breckenridge (19 Apr 1951)

Dave — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:56:58 +0000

I think if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Miss Breckenridge (19 Apr 1951)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Miss Jane Douglass (31 Oct 1963)

Dave — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:44:43 +0000

Autumn is really the best of the seasons: and I’m not sure that old age isn’t the best part of life. But of course, like Autumn, it doesn’t last.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Miss Jane Douglass (31 Oct 1963)

In W. H. Lewis, ed., The Letters of C. S. Lewis (1966), final letter.

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Mrs. Ray Garrett (12 Sep 1960)

Dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:59:50 +0000

The whole lesson of my life has been that no ‘methods of stimulation’ are of any lasting use. They are indeed like drugs — a stronger dose is needed each time and soon no possible dose is effective. We must not bother about thrills at all. Do the present duty — bear the present pain — enjoy the present pleasure — and leave emotions and ‘experiences’ to look after themselves.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Mrs. Ray Garrett (12 Sep 1960)

Lewis, C.S. -- Letter to Warren Lewis (1 Jul 1921)

Dave — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 13:02:20 +0000

The trouble about God is that he is like a person who never acknowledges one’s letters and so, in time, one comes to the conclusion either that he does not exist or that you have got the address wrong. I admitted that it was of great moment: but what was the use of going on dispatching fervent messages — say to Edinburgh — if they all came back through the dead letter office: nay more, if you couldn’t even find Edinburgh on the map.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Letter to Warren Lewis (1 Jul 1921)