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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“Of course all children's literature is not fantastic, so all fantastic books need not be children's books. It is still possible, even in an age so ferociously anti-romantic as our own, to write fantastic stories for adults: though you will usually need to have made a name in some more fashionable kind of literature before anyone will publish them.”

NeedsWritingKindChildrenMadeStillsBookStoriesAgeCoursesLiteratureNamesAdultsFantasticPublishFashionableChildren's BooksChildren's Literature
Book:On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature
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“God lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it.”

ThinkingWritingChildrenLittlesReasonHandsFormTeachLettersGod LoveReasoningHis LoveLove One Another
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for "down here" is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment's rest from the life we were placed here to live. But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”

IfsWorldEndsCountryMomentsWould BeJoyGamesHeavenNaturalThis WorldSeriousUpside DownUnimportantFrivolousSerious BusinessTruancy
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“Hell is a state of mind -- ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind -- is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly.”

MindSaidRealEndsStatesRealityLeftHeavenHellCreaturesHeavenlyState Of MindDungeonsGreat Divorce
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“A perfect practice of Christianity would, of course, consist in a perfect imitation of the life of Christ -- I mean, in so far as it was applicable in one's own particular circumstance. Not in an idiotic sense -- it doesn't mean that every Christian should grow a beard, or be a bachelor, or become a travelling preacher. It means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God.”

ShouldMeanFeelingsChristianCoursesGrowsChristPerfectChristianityPracticeParticularCircumstancesPleasantPreacherImitationBeardBachelorsIdioticPerfect Practice
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.”

GivingLongDoeDoneHelpingRunningPastSinAnswersHellObjectsCostDifficultyAskingForgivingDoctrineOfferingLong RunsForgivenAlasMiraculousWipeFresh StartCalvaryAsking God
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The Guide sang: The new age, the new art, the new ethic and thought, And fools crying, Because it has begun It will continue as it has begun! The wheel runs fast, therefore the wheel will run Faster for ever, The old age is done, We have new lights and see without the sun. (Though they lay flat the mountains and dry up the sea, Wilt thou yet change, as though God were a god?)”

ArtDoneLightRunningAgeSunSeaCryFoolMountainEthicsLaysGuidesOld AgeFasterDryWheelsFlatsNew AgeDry Up
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Wisdom: The first error is that of the southern people, and it consists in holding that these eastern and western places are real places. Give no quarter to that thought, whether it threatens you with fear, or tempts you with hopes. For this is Superstition and all who believe it will come in the end to the swamps, to the south and the jungles, to the far south. Part of the same error is to think that the Landlord is a real man.”

PeopleThinkingMenGivingFirstsBelieveRealEndsErrorsSouthWesternSouthernQuartersSuperstitionsEasternJungleReal MenSwampsLandlord
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes.”

ThinkingShouldFirstsCountryLightSeemsChristianityVirtueDutySourceMoralityGoodnessJokesMirrorsFilledGuiltBusyGlimpseToo Busy
Book:A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works
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“There are two kinds of love: we love wise and kind and beautiful people because we need them, but we love (or try to love) stupid and disagreeable people because they need us. This second kind is the more divine because that is how God loves us: not because we are lovable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but He delights to give.”

PeopleNeedsGivingTryingKindTwoBeautifulWiseStupidDivineDelightGod LoveDisagreeableGreatness Of GodLovableKinds Of LoveBeautiful PeopleGod Loves UsWise Love
Book:The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963
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“I would say if a man is going to write on chemistry, he learns chemistry. The same is true of Christianity. But to speak of the craft itself, I would not know how to advise a man how to write. It is a matter of talent and interest. I believe he must be strongly moved if he is to become a writer. Writing is like a 'lust,' or like 'scratching when you itch.' Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.”

IfsKnowsMenWritingBelieveDoeMatterSpeakStrongI BelieveInterestResultsChristianityKnow HowTalentMovedLustCraftsImpulseChemistryVery StrongAdvise
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.”

PeopleKindRealFactsFeelingsSinTakenMereCharityToleranceSpiteSinnerSuperiorityIndulgenceParodyPresumptionMerrimentDeep Feeling
Book:Christian Reflections
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“The first thing to get clear about Christian morality between man and man is that in this department Christ did not come to teach any brand new morality. The Golden Rule of the New Testament (Do as you would be done by) is a summing up of what everyone, at bottom, had always known to be right.”

MenFirstsDoneWould BeChristianChristKnownTeachClearMoralityBottomGoldenBrandsDepartmentTestamentNew TestamentGolden RuleBrand NewChristian MoralitySumming Up
Book:Mere Christianity: a revised and enlarged edition, with a new introduction, of the three books, The case for Christianity, Christian behaviour, and Beyond personality
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“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens - at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle.”

KnowsHeartPersonsDoeFactsHappensEarthOrderHeavenImaginationChristianityDyingParticularBecomingConsequenceMiracleHistoricalMythCeaseLegendsNobody KnowsOsiris
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“You will say these are very small sins... [But] it does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts”

IfsMenDoeMatterLightCan DoSinHellEffectsHe ManMurderEdgesTricksCardsGentleSlopesMilestoneCumulativeScrewtape LettersSignposts
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting.”

BookStatesHumanityLostWaterImaginationInterestingSeaLandDangerousPlanetsCivilizationLessonsNormalOppositesDifficultyIncreaseErrorsBoundsSpreadSurfaceSaltBarbarismHistory BooksSavageryRaritySalt Water
Book:Image and Imagination
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“Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

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Book:God in the Dock
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