Quotessence
Home / Authors / C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenThinkingPeopleWorldKnowsChristianMayDoeWant

Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“He'll be coming and going" he had said. "One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

KnowsSaidCountryReligionCoursesOne DayDown AndPressesLionsTiedOther CountriesWardrobeNarniaLion Witch WardrobeLion The Witch And The Wardrobe
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol I: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Create image

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would 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 our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

MayEndsSometimesWisdomGovernmentWould BePoliticalPoliticsReligiousFreedomSleepLibertyMoralConscienceVictimLibertarianTyrannyCrueltyOppressionTyrantsApprovalIntoleranceTormentTheologianSincerelyGood WillGoverningFanaticsFanaticismFreedom And LibertyGood IntentionsExtremistFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveRobbersSelf RighteousOmnipotentLimiting GovernmentLibertarian PartyEconomic FreedomMoralistLimited FreedomAmerica FreedomBusybodiesGood MoralGovernment And PoliticsGovernment PoliticsGovernment TyrannyMoralizingSecurity And FreedomMoralismRobber BaronOppressive GovernmentsHonest Government
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Why should your majesty think it? My own plans are made. While I may, I sail East in Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I row East in my coracle. When that sinks, shall I paddle East with my four paws. Then, when I can swim no longer, if I have not yet reached Aslan's Country, there shall I sink with my nose to the sunrise... and Peepiceek will be head of Talking Mice in Narnia”

IfsThinkingShouldMayMadeI CanCountryMy OwnTalkingFourPlansFailingEastNosesDawnSwimSailSunriseMiceMajestyPawsNarnia
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Need-love says of a woman "I cannot live without her"; Gift-love longs to give her happiness, comfort, protection - if possible, wealth; Appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent, rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him, will not be wholly dejected by losing her, would rather have it so than never to have seen her at all.”

IfsNeedsGivingShouldWonderComfortLosingBreathsSilentProtectionRejoiceAppreciativeNeed LoveDejectedLosing Her
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

LoveLifeInspirationalPastDeathBehindsStudentsCollegeInspirational LifeFutureDepressionRecoveryOptimisticNovelistsGraduatesInsperationalStudent SuccessNew PlacesLife Is GoodMoving AheadCollege StudentsLetting Go And Moving OnNew Year New BeginningGraduate StudentsAhead Of TimeBright FutureHappy New Year InspirationalMoving Forward In LifeInspirational GraduationMoving On In LifeJust Move OnBest Is Yet To ComeOvercoming DepressionStudent MotivationDeath ComfortLife Is GreatStudent MotivationalInspirational StudentMotivational GraduationSingle GirlBetter Things To DoInspiring StudentsThinking AheadHeaven And DeathInspire StudentsKids Inspirational
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know. God may call any one of us to respond to some far away problem or support those who have been so called. But we are finite and he will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.”

IfsThinkingKnowsNeedsFeelsMindMayPersonsHas BeensRealHelpingProblemCausesCan DoPoorSupportDoubtDutySickCharityWorthyPityVillageFar AwayFiniteKnowing GodWorthy Causes
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“This is our dilemma--either to taste and not to know or to know and not to taste--or, more strictly, to lack one kind of knowledge because we are in an experience or to lack another kind because we are outside it. [. . .] Of this tragic dilemma myth is the partial solution. In the enjoyment of a great myth we come nearest to experiencing as a concrete what can otherwise be understood only as an abstraction.”

KnowsKindTasteSolutionsUnderstoodMythEnjoymentTragicConcreteAbstractionDilemma
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image