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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“Monarchy can easily be "debunked," but watch the faces, mark well the debunkers. These are the men whose taproot in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes or film stars instead: For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”

MenWellsHas BeensBeautifulFilmFacesSpiritualStarsWatchesCuttingHe ManKingsMarkAthleteDenyPoisonHonourForbiddenMillionaireMonarchyEdenMonarchsPebblesArchesRumoursSpiritual NatureFilm StarsConstitutional MonarchyPolyphony
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will.”

IfsThinkingMenWholeFeelingsCareChristianSubjectsAffairOur LoveGod's LoveChristian Love
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts - to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really before you, then your natural inquisitiveness must make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all.”

IfsKnowsMenWantGivingBelieveMayRealFactsHelpingMightUniverseNaturalAnswersChristianityHonestAccountsClaimsMedicineBeing TrueHelpfulHonest ManUntruePatents
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges, that it should be resistant, should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee.”

WayShouldKindRealDreamRealityShould HaveEdgesCornersObjectivesAll TimeKneesRoughToesFurnitureBangsObjective RealityRough Edges
Book:Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
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“If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings--then we may take it it is worth paying.”

IfsThinkingWorldMayWarRealStatesHappensMovingUniverseCan DoCreaturesImportanceHarmStringsFree WillToys
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“A work of (whatever) art can be either 'received' or 'used'. ...'Using' is inferior to 'reception' because art, if used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life, and does not add to it ... When the art in question is literature a complication arises, for to 'receive' significant words is always, in one sense, to 'use' them, to go through and beyond them to an imagined something which is not itself verbal.”

IfsDoeArtUseUsedPoetryLiteratureOur LivesAddSignificantAriseInferiorsComplicationFacilitateReception
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Because, as we know, almost anything can be read into any book if you are determined enough. This will be especially impressed on anyone who has written fantastic fiction. He will find reviewers, both favourable and hostile, reading into his stories all manner of allegorical meanings which he never intended. (Some of the allegories thus imposed on my own books have been so ingenious and interesting that I often wish I had thought of them myself.)”

IfsKnowsHas BeensBookEnoughStoriesReadingWishMy OwnInterestingFictionWrittenDeterminedFantasticImpressedHostileIngeniousAllegoryReviewers
Book:Reflections on the Psalms
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“It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one's adult enjoyment of what are called 'children's books.' I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty-except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all. A mature palate will probably not much care for crème de menthe: but it ought still to enjoy bread and butter and honey.”

ThinkingChildrenHas BeensStillsBookCareAgeCoursesReadingSpeakGrowsEnjoyInformationOughtTenAdultsSillyBreadToneEnjoymentFiftyMatureHoneyUsualConventionsImaginativeChildren's BooksPalateApologeticWorth ReadingBread And Butter
Book:Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories
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“A great many people (not you) do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.”

PeopleIfsThinkingGivingStatesSeemsHappensSongEnjoySleepLordOur LivesJokesBirdMereWorriedGreat MenSunriseOur LordLive For OthersBird Song
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing than worshipping ... 'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.”

ThinkingHas BeensDifferentWarWould BeChurchPerfectAttentionGreaterMilitaryWorshipMadExcellenceDifferent ThingsNoveltyMonarchyIdolatryChurch Service
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the world-old, world-wide religio of amulets and holy places and priestcraft. Protestantism,in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes. Catholicism is accused of being too much like all the other religions; Protestantism of being insufficiently like a religion at all. Hence Plato, with his transcendent Forms, is the doctor of Protestants; Aristotle, with his immanent Forms, the doctor of Catholics.”

WorldFormToo MuchHolyDoctorsCatholicWideCatholicismEthicalDecayVaguePlatoAccusedMistProtestantsTranscendentCorrespondingOld WorldPlatitudesProtestantismHoly PlacesAmulets
Book:The Allegory of Love
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“Vanity is really the least bad and most pardonable sort. The vain person wants praise, applause, admiration too much and is always angling for it. It is a fault, but a childlike and even (in an odd way) a humble fault. It shows that you are not yet completely contented with your own admiration. You value other people enough to want them to look at you. You are in fact still human.”

PeopleWayWantHumansLooksPersonsStillsEnoughFactsShowsValuesToo MuchPraiseFaultsHumbleVanityVainOddAdmirationApplauseChildlikeAngling
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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