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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“Oh, I can see it happening, age after age, and growing worse the more you reveal your beauty: the son turning his back on the mother and the bride on her groom, stolen away by this everlasting calling, calling, calling of the gods. Taken where we can't follow. It would be far better for us if you were foul and ravening. We'd rather you drank their blood than stole their hearts. We'd rather they were ours and dead than yours and made immortal.”

IfsHeartMadeI CanWould BeAgeMotherTakenGrowingBloodSonCallingHappeningsImmortalEverlastingStolenDrankBridesFoul
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“And in that far distant day when the gods become wholly beautiful, or we at last are shown how beautiful they always were, this will happen more and more. For mortals, as you said, will become more and more jealous. And mother and wife and child and friend will all be in league to keep a soul from being united with the Divine Nature.”

ChildrenSaidSoulHappensLastsBeautifulMotherUnitedWifeDivineMortalsLeagueJealousDivine Nature
Book:Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
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“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

IfsMenChildrenHas BeensDesireReadingFoundFearSecretGrowing UpChildhoodTenIncludingTalesMaturityNovelistsFairyFiftyAshamedMatureReading BooksFairy TaleAdulthoodGetting OlderFairytaleChildishnessChildish Things
Book:On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature
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“The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things -- praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts -- not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs.”

IfsThinkingFirstsHumansChildrenActionTogetherReadingGamesTakenTeachingListeningPrayingDestroyedTennisBombsFrightenedSensibleSheepListening To MusicAtomic BombBathingPintsChildren PlayingChattingDarts
Book:Present Concerns
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“Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head," said Peridan. "Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins." "It is very true," said Edmund. "But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did." And he looked very thoughtful.”

MayMadeSaidPerfectLevelsKnownStrikesThoughtfulAssaultMajestyTraitorAssassinsVery TrueVery Thoughtful
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol V: The Horse and his Boy
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“My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members." --about the only statement i agree with in this book”

PeopleShouldKindTwoBookStatesChristianChurchMy OwnViewsOughtCitizensMembersAgreeMajorityBritishExpectedStatementsChristian LifeRecognise
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”

WorldSidesMorningDoorsWillingPurePurityTestamentNew TestamentFreshnessRumoursSplendour
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“Suppose... suppose we have only dreamed and made up these things like sun, sky, stars, and moon, and Aslan himself. In that case, it seems to me that the made-up things are a good deal better than the real ones. And if this black pits of a kingdom is the best you can make, then it's a poor world. And we four can make a dream world to lick your real one hollow.”

IfsWorldMadeRealDreamSeemsStarsBlackPoorDealsCasesSunFourSkyMoonKingdomsHollowPitsReal OnesDream WorldPuddleglum
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out." - Mere Christianity”

MenWayKindChristianLife IsChristChristianityDegreesPicksMereRepeatsRepentEnablingRepairing
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s (God’s) ground…He [God] made the pleasure: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy [God] has produced, at at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He [God] has forbidden.”

WayHumansMadeFormCan DoForgetPleasureEnemyProduceHealthyDegreesNormalResearchNever ForgetSatisfyingForbiddenScrewtape Letters
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“I'm hunger. I'm thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy's body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.”

YearsI CanShowsBodyLyingNightDiesEnemyCuttingBloodDrinkHundredRiversHungerIceBitesThirstShow MeAfter DeathFreeze
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian
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“Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question "What on earth is he up to now?" will intrude. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

KnowsMenTryingMayMeanSaidEarthRememberWishAttentionTeachDogWasteLaysExcuseTricksExperimentsDevotionPerformingPeterSheepRatsNovelty
Book:Joyful Christian
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“This act [creation], as it is for God, must always remain totally inconceivable to man. For we--even our poets and musicians and inventors--never, in the ultimate sense make. We only build. We always have materials to build from. All we can know about the act of creation must be derived from what we can gather about the relation of the creatures to their Creator”

KnowsMenCreationPoetMaterialsCreaturesMusicianUltimateRelationCreatorInventor
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good.”

TryingSelfWholeHandsWishChristImpossibleTerribleEasierAimBe GoodTerrible ThingsPrecautionImpossible ThingsPersonal Happiness
Book:Joyful Christian
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“A tyrannous and gluttonous demand for affection can be a horrible thing. But in ordinary life no one calls a child selfish because it turns for comfort to its mother; nor an adult who turns to his fellow "for company." Those, whether children or adults, who do so least are not usually the most selfless.”

ChildrenMotherTurnsCompanyComfortDemandOrdinaryAdultsFellowsAffectionSelfishHorribleSelflessOrdinary LifeHorrible Things
Book:The Four Loves
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