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“The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt.”

KnowsMenTryingHumansWellsLongSelfSeemsPainSpiritEvilHurtSinExistenceVictimPropertyErrorsDeeperEvery ManSurrenderSuspectsHuman SpiritBeing HurtSelf Will
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it -- made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.”

IfsMadeSoulHandsSeemsWould BeHouseHeavenDoorsDivineParticularStrangeKeysFitShapesInfiniteCuriousYour SoulSubstanceLocksHollowMoldGlovesStrange ThingsMansionsStitchesSwelling
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“My own idea, for what it is worth, is that all sadness which is not either arising from the repentance of a concrete sin and hastening towards concrete amendment or restitution, or else arising from pity and hastening to active assistance, is simply bad; and I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else. Humility, after the first shock, is a cheerful virtue.”

ThinkingFirstsIdeasMy OwnSinVirtueSadnessHumilityOptimismActivePityShockRepentanceRejoiceAmendmentsConcreteAssistanceCheerfulApostolicRestitutionDisobeying
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

MenTryingHumansLongWarGodStoriesReligionChristianityClassPovertyTerribleAmbitionSlaveryMereEmpiresHopelessHuman HistoryProstitution
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism.”

IfsThinkingMenFeelsSaidBookAbleFacesDealsHalfModernStudentsGreatnessPhilosopherGreat MenPlatoSimplestFace To FaceInadequateCommentatorsGreat Philosophers
Book:God in the Dock
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“He (the devil) always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites...He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.”

WorldEyeGoalReligiousCoupleDrawsDevilConcernOppositesErrorsNovelistsSatanRelyExtrasPairsDislikeScholarFooled
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“If God 'foresaw' our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose god is outside and above the Time-line... You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He know your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but the moment at which you have done it is already 'NOW' for Him.”

IfsKnowsWayWellsDoeHardDoneMomentsWould BeActionLinesWatchesTomorrowGod Knows
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another...Ten-thirty-- and every other moment from the beginning of the world--is always Present for Him. If you like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.”

IfsWorldWayDoeMomentsPrayerTenEternityFollowingPlanesFlamesThirtyPilotsSplitsCrashPlane Crashes
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“It is no disparagement to the garden to say it will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own fruit trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns...It will remain a garden only if someone does all these things to it...If you want to see the difference between [the garden's] contribution and the gardener's, put the commonest weed it grows side by side with his hoes rakes, shears, and a packet of weed killer; you have put beauty, energy, and fecundity beside dead, steril things. Just so, our 'decency and common sense' show grey and deathlike beside the geniality of love.”

IfsWantLoveDoeShowsAgeEnergyGrowsSidesDifferencesCommonCuttingTreeGardenFruitCommon SenseContributionWeedKillersGreyFenceDecencyGardenerLawnsRakesFruit TreesHoePrunesShearsGeniality
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Q. What is your view of the daily discipline of the Christian life - the need for taking time to be alone with God? Lewis: "We have our New Testament regimental orders upon the subject. I would take it for granted that everyone who becomes a Christian would undertake this practice. It is enjoined upon us by Our Lord; and since they are his commands, I believe in following them. It is always just possible that Jesus Christ meant what he said when He told us to seek the secret place and to close the door.”

NeedsBelieveSaidChristianOrderJesusI BelieveChristViewsSecretLordPracticeDoorsSubjectsDisciplineJesus ChristFollowingI Believe InChristian LifeCommandGrantedTake TimeTestamentOur LordNew TestamentSecret PlacesAlone With GodDaily Discipline
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Perhaps civilization will never be safe until we care for something else more than we care for it. The hypothesis has certain facts to support it. As far as peace (which is one ingredient in our idea of civilization)is concerned, I think many would now agree that a foreign policy dominated by desire for peace is one of the many roads that lead to war.”

ThinkingIdeasWarFactsCareDesireCertainSupportPolicyCivilizationSafeConcernedAgreeIngredientsForeign PolicyHypothesis
Book:God in the Dock
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“Are not lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it.”

YearsHumansMomentsAgeLastsDesireNightPassionBornHuman BeingsSilenceChildhoodListeningOld AgeUncertainLifelongMomentaryFlux
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

IfsWayTryingFirstsMeanPersonsWould BeActionCertainReligionFaithOrderCoursesHeavenChristChristianityAdviceMereRewardsSavedWorriedObedienceHave FaithTrustedNew WaysGleam
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia. But don't go trying to use the same route twice. Indeed, don't try to get there at all. It'll happen when you're not looking for it. And don't talk too much about it even among yourselves. And don't mention it to anyone else unless you find that they've had adventures of the same sort themselves. What's that? How will you know? Oh, you'll know all right. Odd things, they say-even their looks-will let the secret out. Keep your eyes open. Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools." -The Profesor”

KnowsTryingLooksUseHappensEyeSchoolSecretTeachToo MuchAdventureKingsOddBlessRoutesNarniaOdd Things
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Stop it," spluttered Eustace, "go away. Put that thing away. It's not safe. Stop it, I say. I'll tell Caspian. I'll have you muzzled and tied up." "Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!" cheeped the Mouse. "Draw and fight or I'll beat you black and blue with the flat." "I haven't got one," said Eustace. "I'm a pacifist. I don't believe in fighting." "Do I understand," said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment and speaking very sternly, "that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?”

GivingBelieveSaidMomentsFightingBlackHavensSafeBeatsDrawsGive MeBlueDon't BelieveSatisfactionFlatsGoing AwayTiedMicePacifistTied UpWithdrawingReepicheep
Book:The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Enhanced Edition)
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“It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?" "But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan. "Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund. "I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

KnowsMayLittlesSaidReasonNamesKnowingMeetingsDearReason WhyKnow MeLucyNarniaDear Ones
Book:The voyage of the Dawn Treader
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“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - 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 splendors. 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.”

PeopleKindMeanDoeArtPlayFactsLife IsReligionCultureNationsChristTakenCivilizationHorrorJokesOrdinaryMereMortalsImmortalSuperiorityEverlastingOrdinary PeopleExploitsSolemnSplendorPresumptionMerrimentGnatsMere Mortals
Book:Christian Reflections
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“At all ages, if [fantasy and myth] is used well by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalize while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevancies. Bat at its best it can do more; it can give us experiences we have never had and thus, instead of 'commenting on life,' can add to it.”

IfsGivingWellsWholeAgeFormUsedCan DoClassFantasyReaderConceptsAddMythFairyFairy TaleConcreteBatsFairytale
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldMeanDoeChristianFormNextVirtueModernEternalLooking ForwardTheologicalEscapismWishful Thinking
Book:Joyful Christian
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