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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“A dragon has just flown over the tree-tops and lighted on the beach. Yes, I am afraid it is between us and the ship. And arrows are no use against dragons. And they're not at all afraid of fire." "With your Majesty's leave-" began Reepicheep. "No, Reepicheep," said the King very firmly, "you are not to attempt a single combat with it.”

SaidUseFireTreeKingsShipsBeachDragonsCombatMajestyArrowsTree TopsReepicheep
Book:The voyage of the Dawn Treader
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“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths: i.e., the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call 'real things'.”

MenWayMindRealStoriesRememberFoundChristDifferencesAcceptingChristianityHappenedPoetMythReal ThingsPagan
Book:Yours, Jack: The Inspirational Letters of C. S. Lewis
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“Digory never spoke on the way back, and the others were shy of speaking to him. He was very sad and he wasn't even sure all the time that he had done the right thing; but whenever he remembered the shining tears in Aslan's eyes he became sure.”

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Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen
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“When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

ThinkingShouldYearsWellsMeanSoulLastsFacesJoySpeakAnswersSawsSpeechYour SoulIdiotOver YouFace To FaceTill We Have Faces
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is took weak and fuddled to shake off.”

KnowsMenGivingYearsMindLongDoeEnoughStrongChanceSinHalfSweetCreaturesAmbitionWeakFingersCuriosityLustStealingShakesTunesOver ItAssociationVery StrongHeelsStrong EnoughGratificationKickingRelishLabyrinthDrearyBest YearReverieWhistlingDrummingScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the the impossible.”

ThinkingMenTryingMindBelieveHumansMayMeanHas BeensChanceEffortCasesImpossibleAchieveHumilityFoolSucceedMethodUglyCleverNonsenseManifestRevolvingClever ManPretty WomanScrewtape Letters
Book:Joyful Christian
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“The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents--or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldWantMindEndsStatesDoneFactsWould BeEnemyTalentDesignGladBeing The BestState Of MindRejoiceBiasSunriseElephantsFavourNeighbourCathedralsWant HimWaterfallsScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own'. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to him employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which h allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”

FeelsMindHas BeensMadeFeelingsHoursReligiousMy OwnDoubtFourDutyTaxesTwentiesPropertyMysteriousCuriousGenerousAssumptionMy TimeEach DayPortionsEmployersBirthrightDonationDeductionsScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.”

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Book:The Screwtape Letters
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“Now we cannot...discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going tobring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, "You must do this. I can't.”

IfsTryingMindI CanIdeasMomentsHomeLawTurnsNextEffortMoralFailingSucceedHarderHardestNext TimeTurn To God
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can't see it. So quietly submit to be painted---i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone.You are in the right way. Walk---don't keep on looking at it.”

KnowsWayWellsEnoughRememberArtistReligionWalksTrustDutyAskingLeavingObviousStationsSubmitFulfillingRight WayAsking For Forgiveness
Author:C. S. Lewis
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