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

C. S. Lewis Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenThinkingPeopleWorldKnowsChristianMayDoeWant

Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”

PeopleKnowsMenGivingTryingMeanLittlesDoeHas BeensIdeasMotivationalLyingReligionStrongHoursChristianityKnow HowFiveAtheismMinutesCurrentsObviousSillyTemptationGood PeopleTemptedFive MinutesBad PeopleWill PowerGiving InBadnessPower And ControlSelf PowerDiscipline And Self ControlResisting TemptationTemptation LifeSheltered Lives
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

LifeInspirationalEnoughPlayMotivationalAgeSuccessReadingGrowing UpGrowingPositiveGrew UpAngelAgingTalesOld AgeFairyFairy TaleGrowing OldFairytaleInner ChildNarniaKids Growing UpChildren PlayingYouth And Old AgeChildren Growing UpTooth FairyGrowing ChildrenLion Witch Wardrobe
Book:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 2)
Create image

“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mill so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

MenShouldChildrenLastsRememberHouseKingsCatHorseLaysBoatSatShoreLionsMidnightMillsNarniaNear DeathJackals
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these 'smug', commonplace neighbors at all.”

ThinkingBelieveStillsRunningChurchEnemyHumilityBalanceBottomCreditNeighborKneesAllowingCommonplaceParrotsCondescensionSinfulnessGoing To ChurchScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality of whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered to them.”

WantBelieveHumansTwoWholeMomentsRealityI BelieveEnemyConcernedEternityTwo ThingsPresent MomentActualityScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“[M]an has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.”

ThinkingTryingHas BeensPhilosophyCareTogetherStrongChurchBoysWasteArgumentDancingPracticalsDoctrineContemporaryMaterialismCourageousAlliesWasting TimeDozenAcademicConventionalAccustomedRuthlessStarksJargonScrewtape LettersDon't Waste TimeTrue Or False
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“He thinks great folly, child,' said Aslan. "This world is bursting with life for these few days because the song with which I called it into life still hangs in the air and rumbles in the ground. It will not be so for long. But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh, Adam's son, how cleverly you defend yourself against all that might do you good!”

IfsThinkingWorldChildrenLongMadeSaidStillsMightSongVoiceAirThis WorldSonComfortFollySinnerSpokesAdamRoaringBurstingRumbleGrowling
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“If you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body...every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who along can help them. Cutting off a man's fingers would be a odd way of getting him to do more work.”

PeopleIfsMenWayWantLittlesHelpingBodyWould BeChristianChristCan DoCuttingAddFingersCellsWorriedOddUnreasonableBody Of ChristCutting Off
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“The worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. And when you wake up you have to get up because the ground is so hard you are uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for breakfast and you have had nothing but apples for supper the night before.”

IfsMatterHardNightSleepDoorsWorstWake UpGet UpUncomfortableApplesBreakfastSupper
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian
Create image

“And that's why, when they want to get rid of anyone, they usually bring him down here (like they were doing with me) and say they'll leave him to the ghosts. But I always wondered if they didn't really drown 'em or cut their throats. I never quite believed in the ghosts. But those two cowards you've just shot believed all right. They were more scared of taking me to my death than I was of going.”

IfsWantTwoCuttingShotsScaredGhostEmsCowardThroat
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“She looked at a silver birch: it would have a soft, showery voice and would look like a slender girl, with hair blown all about her face and fond of dancing. She looked at the oak: he would be a wizened, but hearty, old man with a frizzled beard and warts on his fact and hands, with hair growing out of the warts. She looked at the beech under which she was standing. Ah! --she would be the best of all. She would be a gracious goddess, smooth and stately, the Lady of the Wood.”

MenLooksFactsHandsWould BeFacesGirlVoiceGrowingHairStandingDancingWoodsBeing The BestSilverOld ManGoddessSmoothBeardGraciousOaksSlenderHeartyWarts
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“She stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely lights and shadows. A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all around it. And then --Oh Joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.”

LightEyeJoyBlackDarkWhiteTreeHugeMetsShadowDancingShiningCirclesLovelyConfusionGrassLionsSmoothHer EyesShiftingMoonlightLawnsLight And ShadowDark Trees
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image