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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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C. S. Lewis was a British novelist, academic, and Christian theologian. He is renowned for his fictional works, particularly The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of fantasy novels that have become a beloved classic of children's literature. Lewis also penned adult fiction, including the science fiction trilogy Out of the Silent Planet and the space trilogy. His non-fiction works, such as Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain, have had a significant impact on Christian thought and spirituality.

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All Ifs Men Thinking People World Knows Christian May Doe Want

Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“The very power of [textbook writers] depends on the fact that they are dealing with a boy: a boy who thinks he is ‘doing’ his ‘English prep’ and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.”

Thinking Years Mind Facts Sides Boys Conditions Theory Depends Ten Ethics Notion Forgotten Theology Assumption Unconscious Stakes Controversy Textbooks Preps

Author:C. S. Lewis

“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded against a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.”

Needs Three Cutting Modern Cold Tasks Weak Desert Excess Sensibility Jungle Awakened Pupils Educator Guarded Vulgarity Slumber

Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

Source: A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

“No justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism. I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about ethics, but bred to believe that ‘a gentleman does not cheat’, than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers.”

Men Believe Doe Play Animal Emotion Moral Virtue Ethics Philosopher Intellect Aids Cards Gentleman Virtuous Justification Cheat Organisms Powerless Skeptical

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Falling in love is something that happens to us, being is love is something we do. No passion is self preservatory.”

Self Happens Fall Passion Love Is Falling In Love

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Each time you fall He'll pick you up. He knows your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection”

Knows Fall Effort Picks Perfection

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Art Reason Accepted Mood Spite Holding On

Book:The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis

Source: The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis

“The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.”

Feels Pain Happiness Religion Deals Happy Uplifting Grieving

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. . . look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Looks Ends Whole Body Given Wish Christ Ambition Eternal Died Raised Thrown Submit Eternal Life Fiber

Author:C. S. Lewis

“When once a man is launched on such an adventure as this, he must bid farewell to hopes and fears, otherwise death or deliverance will both come too late to save his honor and his reason. Ho, my beauties!”

Men Reason Adventure Honor Late Too Late Farewell Deliverance Hopes And Fears

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So this is what God's really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

Thinking Believe Real God Faith Belief Danger Cease Conclusion Believe In God Dread Deceiving Deceiver Grief Observed

Book:A Grief Observed

Source: A Grief Observed

“Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart.”

“In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself.”

Men Stills Different Literature Thousand Great Literature

Author:C. S. Lewis

“We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, and intellectually. We need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves.”

Ifs Knows Needs Born Loneliness Conscious Helpless

Book:The Four Loves

Source: The Four Loves

“The death of a beloved is an amputation.”

Beloved Bereavement Amputation

Author:C. S. Lewis

“I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, hoever, turns out to be not a state but a process.”

States Turns Process Grief Sorrow Maps Grief Observed

Book:A Grief Observed

Source: A Grief Observed

“Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than a minority of them - never become even conscious of them all.”

I Can Memories Five Conscious Intellect Senses Abstract Assumption Minorities Selective Preconceptions Five Senses Grief Observed

Book:A Grief Observed

Source: A Grief Observed

“Wouldn't he know without being asked?' said Polly. 'I've no doubt he would,' said the Horse (still with his mouth full). 'But I've a sort of an idea he likes to be asked.”

Knows Said Stills Ideas Doubt Mouths Horse Likes No Doubt

Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen

Source: The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen

“God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous”

Ifs May Atheism

Book:Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Source: Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

“if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.”

Ifs Harder Rewards Deeds Good Deeds Unfairness

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Emeth came walking forward into the open strip of grass between the bonfire and the Stable. His eyes were shining, his face was solemn, his hand was on his sword-hilt, and he carried his head high. Jill felt like crying when she looked at his face. And Jewel whispered in the King's ear, "By the Lion's Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash.”

Hands Eye Faces Young Felt Cry Kings Walking Ears Shining Worthy Warrior Grass His Eyes Lions Stable Jewels Solemn Bonfire Walking Forward Almost Love

Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol VII: The Last Battle

Source: The Chronicles of Narnia Vol VII: The Last Battle

“It now seemed to me that all my other guesses had been only self-pleasing dreams spun out of my wishes, but now I was awake.”

Self Dream Wish Awake Spun My Wish

Book:Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

Source: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

“If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which 'took these things into account' was not faith but imagination.”

Ifs House Imagination Accounts Blow Cards House Of Cards

Book:A Grief Observed Readers' Edition: With contributions from Hilary Mantel, Jessica Martin, Jenna Bailey, Rowan Williams, Kate Saunders, Francis Spufford and Maureen Freely

Source: A Grief Observed Readers' Edition: With contributions from Hilary Mantel, Jessica Martin, Jenna Bailey, Rowan Williams, Kate Saunders, Francis Spufford and Maureen Freely

“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”