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

C. S. Lewis Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenThinkingPeopleWorldKnowsChristianMayDoeWant

Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love - You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”

IfsMenHas BeensImportantChristianTermVirtueHappenedLove YouHighestNegativeIdealsImportanceTwentiesGood ThingsCarrieGood ManSuggestionsNineteenAbstinenceUnselfishness
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“I never heard weeping like that before or after; not from a child, nor a man wounded in the palm, nor a tortured man, nor a girl dragged off to slavery from a taken city. If you heard the woman you most hate in the world weep so, you would go to comfort her. You would fight your way through fire and spears to reach her. And I knew who wept, and what had been done to her, and who had done it.”

IfsMenWorldWayChildrenDoneHateGirlFightingCitiesTakenFireHeardComfortSlaveryWoundedPalmsWeepingSpears
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side. You must not do, you must not even try to do, the will of the Father unless you are prepared to "know of the doctrine." All my acts, desires, and thoughts were to be brought into harmony with universal Spirit. For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was legion.”

KnowsTryingFirstsYoungSpiritLyingDesirePurposeFoundFatherNamesWaitingSidesDangerAmbitionFirst TimeHatredUniversalHarmonyPreparedAtheistLustPracticalsDoctrineNurseZoosNurseryLegionHaremWait For Him
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes himself as receptive as he can. But for that very reason he cannot possibly read every work solemly or gravely. For he will read 'in the same spirit that the author writ.'... He will never commit the error of trying to munch whipped cream as if it were venison.”

IfsTryingReasonWholeSpiritReaderErrorsCommitAcademicCreamReceptiveWhipped CreamVenison
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Friendship exhibits a glorious "nearness by resemblance" to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying "Holy, Holy, Holy" to one another (Isaiah VI, 3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.”

MenWaySoulHeavenNumbersVisionSeeingShareCryHolyUniqueIncreaseBlessedCommunicateBreadGloriousHeavenlyMultitudesExhibitsResemblanceFruition
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“The very condition of having Friends is that we should want something else besides Friends. Where the truthful answer to the question "Do you see the same truth?" would be "I see nothing and I don't care about the truth; I only want a Friend," no Friendship can arise - though Affection of course may. There would be nothing for the Friendship to be about; and Friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travellers.”

IfsWantShouldMayWould BeCareCoursesWhiteAnswersShareConditionsFellowsAffectionDon't CareAriseEnthusiasmI Don't CareTruthfulMiceWant SomethingTraveller
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Friendship, then, like the other natural loves, is unable to save itself. In reality, because it is spiritual and therefore faces a subtler enemy, it must, even more wholeheartedly than they, invoke the divine protection if it hopes to remain sweet. For consider how narrow its true path is. Is must not become what the people call a "mutual admiration society"; yet if it is not full of mutual admiration, of Appreciative love, it is not Friendship at all.”

PeopleIfsRealityFacesSpiritualNaturalLove IsEnemyPathDivineSweetProtectionMutualAdmirationInvokeAppreciativeWholeheartedlyNatural LoveDivine ProtectionMutual Admiration
Book:The Four Loves
Create image

“One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”

PeopleMenWayGivingMayReasonMomentsUseChristianCertainIndividualTakenSpecialTypeFitGiving UpMarkBeerNosesCinemaMeatBad ManLooking Down
Book:Mere Christianity
Create image

“The search for a "suitable" church makes the man a critic where God wants him to be a pupil. What he wants from the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise- does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going.”

ThinkingMenWantMayDoeChurchAttitudeWasteLaysCriticsHumbleCriticalRejectsWasting TimeNourishmentPupilsSuitableWant HimRejectingLaymanReceptivityAppraise
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“But what would have been the good?" Aslan said nothing. "You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right – somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?" "To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that." "Oh dear," said Lucy. "But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan. "If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me – what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

IfsKnowsWayMeanChildrenHas BeensSaidHappensHappenedPleaseFindingsDearGet UpOne WayFollow MeLucy
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian
Create image

“I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”

MenBelieveLongStillsImportantLastsLyingJesusChristSleepEmotionMorningJourneyEventsEmotionalSonBedJesus ChristDrivenAwakeLast WordsSunnyZoosImportant EventsLong Sleep
Book:Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
Create image

“who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of man, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

MenHas BeensEyeChanceStruggleDivineUnderstoodMercyDepthLiberationHis EyesWickedGatesAdoreCompulsionKickingKinderSoftnessResentfulHardnessProdigalsWicked ManDivine Mercy
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“In Charn [Jadis] had taken no notice of Polly (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.”

PeopleEndsUseWantedTakenPracticalsWitchNot InterestedUnclesAndrew
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia 7-in-1 Bundle with Bonus Book, Boxen
Create image