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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“A society where the simple many obey the few seers can live; a society where all were seers could live even more fully. But a society where the mass is still simple and the seers are no longer attended to can achieve only superficiality, baseness, ugliness, and in the end extinction. On or back we must go: to stay here is death.”

StillsEndsSimpleAchieveMassExtinctionUglinessSuperficialitySeersBaseness
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“No one returns from Christianity to the same state he was before Christianity but into a worse state: the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulteress. For faith perfects nature but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light but also the natural light which pagans possessed.”

MenStatesLightLostNaturalDifferencesChristianityReturnOur TimePossessedPaganUnmarriedMarried WomenNatural Light
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go.”

StillsWholeFeelingsLastsLove IsPrinciplesHabitBasesGood ThingsMereNobleWhole LifeBest ThingsIntensityBeing In LoveComes And GoesFeelings Come And Go
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.”

IfsKnowsMaySometimesGovernmentHeavenVoiceSleepMistakeWorstConscienceLustCrueltyTemptationImpulseTyrantsApprovalTormentRepentRobbersTheocracySatedPower And FearRobber Baron
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“There is one bit of advice given us by the ancient Greeks, and by the Jews in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages, which the modern economic system has completely disobeyed. All these people told us not to lend money at interest; and lending money at interest - what we call investment - is the basis of our whole system.”

PeopleWholeAgeChristianGivenBitsInterestTeacherEconomicModernMiddleAdviceBasesInvestmentAncientJewGreekTestamentMiddle AgesOld TestamentEconomic SystemsLendingAncient GreekGreat ChristianLending MoneyChristian Teachers
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work build up in him a sense of being really at home on earth which is just what we want.”

MenWorldWantFeelsHomeEarthGrowingFindingsImportancePressureProsperityCirclesReputationBeing RealAcquaintanceAbsorbing
Book:The Screwtape Letters
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“Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenPersonsSaidRealCoursesInterestImagineIntelligentHumbleImagine ThatCheerfulChapsChristian HumilityHumble ManHumble Person
Book:The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
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“I wish I were younger. What inclines me now to think you may be right in regarding [evolution] as the central and radical lie in the whole web of falsehood that now governs our lives is not so much your arguments against it as the fanatical and twisted attitudes of its defenders.”

ThinkingMayWholeLife IsLyingWishAttitudeOur LivesEvolutionArgumentRadicalFalsehoodTwistedDefendersIncline
Book:Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963
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