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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

[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

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)

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

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

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)

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

“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

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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”

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)

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)