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

C. S. Lewis Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenThinkingPeopleWorldKnowsChristianMayDoeWant

Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“I am perfectly convinced that whatever the gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear they are not that sort of thing....Christ bent down and scribbled in the dust with His finger. Nothing comes of this. No one has based any doctrine on it. And the act of inventing little irrelevant details to make an imaginary scene more convincing is purely a modern art.”

LittlesArtChristDealsClearModernSceneDown AndFingersDetailsConvincedDoctrineDustLegendsImaginaryBentIrrelevantConvincingInventingModern Art
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different, (and He rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”

PeopleHumansMeanDifferentHelpingBodyWishChristNaturalDifferencesChurchUnitedCommonShareMembersIronRejoiceHuman SocietyAffinityBody Of ChristCommon Life
Book:Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963
Create image

“There is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating them from the "wisdom" of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline , and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.”

MenHumansSoulSelfProblemRealityAgeWishTechnologyVirtueWiseMagicModernDisciplineSolutionsTechniqueObjectivesHuman LifeSelf DisciplineConformCardinalsSeparatingObjective RealityScience TechnologyApplied Science
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever.”

IfsYearsHumansIndividualHuman BeingsChristianityBotherGood ManSeventiesTrue Or False
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
Create image

“We want to know not how we should pray if we were perfect but how we should pray being as we now are ... It is no use to ask God with factitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with the desire for B. We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”

IfsKnowsWantShouldMindWholeUseRealityDesireAsksPerfectOughtPrayingFilledLaysEarnestness
Book:Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
Create image

“As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not conciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.”

ThinkingNeedsLongHas BeensLightWould BeEyeReadingChurchPerfectAttentionStepsDancingShoesPrintSpellingChurch ServiceGood ReadingGood Shoes
Book:Joyful Christian
Create image

“Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that.... The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see; like bringing a horse back and back to the fence it has refused to jump or bringing a child back and back to the bit in its lesson that it wants to shirk.”

WantChildrenRealJobsBitsSimpleMoralPrinciplesTeacherMoralityLessonsHorseAnxiousIntroducingReally GreatFenceCrankReal JobsQuacksShirk
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
Create image

“But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn't know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsLooksChildrenSometimesEyeFacesSpiritualFoundSawsTerribleCaughtBe GoodGoldenOverwhelmingRoyalGlimpseSolemnNarniaBeavers
Book:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Create image

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of a "hole." This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is repentance.”

MenWayNeedsHas BeensProcessRealizingSinMovementReadyArmsCreaturesLaysSorryTrackSpeedImprovementSurrenderHolesFallenRepentanceRebelImperfectLaying Down
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“If human life is in fact ordered by a beneficent being whose knowledge of our real needs and of the way in which they can be satisfied infinitely exceeds our own, we must expect a priori that his operations will often appear to us far from beneficent and far from wise, and that it will be our highest prudence to give him our confidence in spite of this.”

IfsWayNeedsGivingHumansRealFactsLife IsWiseHighestSatisfiedHuman LifeOperationsSpitePrudenceExceed
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“In the ancient world individuals have sold themselves as slaves, in order to eat. So in society. Here is a witch-doctor who can save us from the sorcerers - a war-lord who can save us from the barbarians - a Church that can save us from Hell. Give them what they ask, give ourselves to them bound and blindfold, if only they will! Perhaps the terrible bargain will be made again. We cannot blame men for making it. We can hardly wish them not to. Yet we can hardly bear that they should.”

IfsMenWorldGivingShouldMadeWarGovernmentOrderAsksIndividualWishChurchLordHellBearsTerribleDoctorsBlameSlaveBoundsAncientWitchDoctor WhoBargainsBarbariansBlame MeAncient WorldBlindfoldsWitch Doctors
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“What assurance have we that our masters will or can keep the promise which induced us to sell ourselves? Let us not be deceived by phrases about 'Man taking charge of his own destiny'. All that can really happen is that some men will take charge of the destiny of the others. They will be simply men; none perfect; some greedy, cruel and dishonest. The more completely we are planned the more powerful they will be. Have we discovered some new reason why, this time, power should not corrupt as it has done before?”

MenShouldReasonDoneGovernmentHappensPerfectPowerfulDestinyMastersPromiseSellsReason WhyPhrasesGreedyAssuranceDeceivedTaking Charge
Book:God in the Dock
Create image

“That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended - civilizations are built up - excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top, and then it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down.”

PeopleFactsSeemsGovernmentRunningEnergyBreakKeysCivilizationBuiltMachinesInstitutionsMiserySelfishRuinsExcellentFlawsYardsBreaking DownTerrificSlidesFatal Flaws
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
Create image