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A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

Book by C. S. Lewis · 32 quotes · Ifs, Religion, Men

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A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis Quotes

“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.”

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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
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“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”

IfsKnowsShouldWholeWisdomLightWould BeEyeReligionUniverseFoundLiteratureDarkAtheismCreaturesMereThere Is No GodGod ExistsThere Being No GodApologeticProof Of GodProof That God ExistsProof God Exists
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“The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word "love", and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest "well pleased".”

IfsMenHumansWellsLooksMayLongDoeMadeProblemSufferingLove IsPleasureExistenceObjectsDivineAll ThingsSakeGod LoveCentreDivine LoveHuman SufferingWords Love
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“We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker's, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.”

IfsShouldDoeFactsRememberChristSinHeardBloodStrangeLaughterIllusionConcernGuiltMereCommittedHumbleCrueltyRepentanceSpeakersFalsehoodBe HumbleBoyhood
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“The theory that thought is merely a movement in the brain is, in my opinion, nonsense; for if so, that theory itself would be merely a movement, an event among atoms, which may have speed and direction but of which it would be meaningless to use the words 'true' or 'false'.”

IfsMayUseWould BeReligionBrainOpinionAtheismEventsMovementTheorySpeedNonsenseMeaninglessAtomsTrue Or False
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“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.”

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“Chronological snobbery is the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively), or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood.”

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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
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“Morality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are 'done away' and the rest is a matter of flying.”

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