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C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“When the most important things in our life happen we quite often do not know, at the moment, what is going on. A man does not always say to himself, "hullo! i'm growing up." It is only when he looks back that he realises what has happened and recognises it as what people call "growing up.”

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Book:Mere Christianity
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“I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptation. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc., don't get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time...The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give up.”

IfsKnowsGivingSelfHandsHappinessFallLosesRecordsSeriousAmountDespairGiving UpOvercomingTemptationEtcTemperOffendedImpatienceAnnoyanceUpper HandPetulance
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“If they embark on this course the difference between the old and the new education will be an important one. Where the old initiated, the new merely 'conditions'. The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds- making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation-men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.”

IfsKnowsMenKindImportantYoungPurposeCoursesDifferencesDealsTeachConditionsBirdEducationalPropagandaManhoodPupilsKeepersNew DealPropagationPoultry
Book:The Abolition of Man: C.S. Lewis’s Classic Essay on Objective Morality: A Critical Edition by Michael Ward
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“It means that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still that she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and darkness before Time began, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and death itself would work backwards.”

IfsKnowsMeanLittlesStillsDifferentInspirationFaithKnownDarknessMagicWillingVictimTablesCommittedDeeperChristian InspirationalDawnCracksWitchStillnessBackwardsWardrobeTraitorTreacheryNarniaLion Witch WardrobeLion The Witch And The Wardrobe
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol I: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
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“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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“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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“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
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“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
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“Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into joy? Should we not reply, With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleansed first. It may hurt, you know-even so, sir.”

IfsKnowsShouldFirstsHeartMaySaidSoulJoyHurtBreakSonDemandDrawsBreathsSmellMy SonMudSubmissionObjectionsCharitableAway From YouRagsPurgatorySlimeUpbraid
Book:Joyful Christian
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“I can answer that only by hearsay, returned the Guide, for pain is a secret which he has shared with your race and not with mine; and you would find it as hard to explain suffering to me as I would find it to reveal to you the secrets of the Mountain people. But those who know best say this, that any liberal man would choose the pain of this desire, even for ever, rather than the peace of feeling it no longer; and that though the best thing is to have, the next best is to want, and the worst of all is not to want.”

PeopleKnowsMenWantI CanHardFeelingsPainDesireSufferingNextAnswersSecretRaceWorstMinesMountainGuidesBest ThingsHearsay
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

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Author:C. S. Lewis
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