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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it, tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest - if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself - you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say 'Here at last is the thing I was made for.'”

IfsKnowsShouldHas BeensMadeSoulLastsDiesSoundDoubtPossibilityPromiseEarsDiedCaughtYour SoulManifestPossessedEchoesFulfilledGlimpseNever QuitHintsTantalizing
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that's my job...And I'm prepared to say on that basis if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legends or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic. I've read a great many novels and I know a fair amount about the legends that grew up among early people, and I know perfectly well the Gospels are not that kind of stuff.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsKindPersonsJobsLife IsStuffNovelGrewAmountGrew UpBibleFairsBasesPreparedCriticsGreat MenHistorianLegendsPrivate LifeIncompetence
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“If minds are wholly dependent on brains and brains on biochemistry, and biochemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees.”

IfsShouldMindLongRunningSoundBrainTreeWindShould HaveDependentSignificanceMeaninglessAtomsLong RunsFluxBiochemistryWind In The Trees
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“What you want is practice, practice, practice. It doesn’t matter what we write (at least this is my view) at our age, so long as we write continually as well as we can. I feel that every time I write a page either of prose or of verse, with real effort, even if it’s thrown into the fire the next minute, I am so much further on.”

IfsWantFeelsWritingWellsLongRealMatterAgeNextViewsEffortPracticeFireMinutesPagesWhat You WantProseThrownVerses
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world.”

WorldNeedsWritingTryingBookReasonWholeAbleChristianChristianitySpecialBelieverHonestlyWhole WorldReason WhyUneducatedSpecial Education
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.”

ThinkingKnowsWayFirstsHumansTwoIdeasFactsWantedEarthLawCertainUniverseHuman BeingsBreakClearOughtFoundationCuriousBehaveLaws Of NatureClear Thinking
Book:Mere Christianity
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“If you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious reading and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed.”

IfsMindBelieveChristianReadingBeliefReligiousPrayerChristianityAliveAcceptedDoctrineChristian LifeFedsDaily Prayer
Book:Mere Christianity
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“There is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and he wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

AbleCuttingSourceHigherSittingDifficultyMereArguingStreamsReasoningBranchesCutting Off
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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