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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“..(T)here are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.”

ThinkingMenNeedsBelieveMayTwoReasonHandsGovernmentOpinionDemocracyWiseShareAdviceDeserveOppositesFellowsDemocratDoctrineFallenWickedTrustedIrresponsibleCommonwealthTwo Opposites
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods)as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

IfsMenShouldMayPersonsImportantWarEndsPovertyRolesModernReadyJudgingDiseaseApproachShould HaveImportant ThingsAncientDefenseTrialsReasonablePermitAccusedBenchesModern ManDocksAcquittal
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Honest rejection of Christ, however mistaken, will be forgiven and healed ... but to evade the Son of Man, to look the other way, to pretend you haven't noticed, to become suddenly absorbed in something on the other side of the street, to leave the receiver off the telephone because it might be He who was ringing up, to leave unopened certain letters in a strange handwriting because they might be from Him -- this is a different matter. You may not be certain yet whether you ought to be a Christian; but you do know you ought to be a Man, not an ostrich, hiding its head in the sand.”

KnowsMenWayLooksMayDifferentMatterMightChristianCertainSidesChristStreetsHonestHavensStrangeSonOughtLettersRejectionSandHidingMistakenForgivenTelephonesBe A ManHealedReceiverHandwritingOstriches
Author: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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“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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“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.”

NeedsTryingFirstsMayStillsImportantSoulMomentsHelpingHandsAsksProcessTeachVirtueWorstDependsHabitDespairIllusionPicksTrainCuresForgivenAlways TryingTry AgainTruthfulnessChastityAsking For ForgivenessBest MomentsGod FirstPick Yourself Up
Author:C. S. Lewis
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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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“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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“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

LifeMayHardWisdomWould BeTurnsChangeChangedGoes OnBirdOrdinarySightHarderEmbraceDecentChanging The WorldEggsTrue HappinessJollyBusiness ChangeLearn To FlyBird FlyingWhy ChangeHatchingChange Is Hard
Book:Joyful Christian
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“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”

MayWarGovernmentLiteraturePoliticsPeaceLibertyVictimLibertarianTyrannyTyrantsSincerelyGoverningFreedom And LibertyExtremistFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveLimiting GovernmentLibertarian PartyDespotsEconomic FreedomLimited FreedomAmerica FreedomBusybodiesGood MoralDrug ProhibitionGovernment And PoliticsGovernment PoliticsGovernment TyrannySecurity And FreedomRobber BaronOppressive GovernmentsHonest Government
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“To the glistening Eastern sea, I give you Queen Lucy, the Valiant. To the great Western Wood, King Edmund the Just. To the radiant Southern sun, Queen Susan, the Gentle; and to the clear Northern sky I give you King Peter, the Magnificent. Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen. May your wisdom grace us 'til the stars rain down from the heavens.”

GivingMayHeavenStarsSunClearGraceSeaSkyKingsRainWesternWoodsGentleQueensSouthernPeterMagnificentEasternWardrobeRadiantLucyNarniaValiantLion Witch WardrobeLion The Witch And The Wardrobe
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

MayEndsSometimesWisdomGovernmentWould BePoliticalPoliticsReligiousFreedomSleepLibertyMoralConscienceVictimLibertarianTyrannyCrueltyOppressionTyrantsApprovalIntoleranceTormentTheologianSincerelyGood WillGoverningFanaticsFanaticismFreedom And LibertyGood IntentionsExtremistFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveRobbersSelf RighteousOmnipotentLimiting GovernmentLibertarian PartyEconomic FreedomMoralistLimited FreedomAmerica FreedomBusybodiesGood MoralGovernment And PoliticsGovernment PoliticsGovernment TyrannyMoralizingSecurity And FreedomMoralismRobber BaronOppressive GovernmentsHonest Government
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Why should your majesty think it? My own plans are made. While I may, I sail East in Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I row East in my coracle. When that sinks, shall I paddle East with my four paws. Then, when I can swim no longer, if I have not yet reached Aslan's Country, there shall I sink with my nose to the sunrise... and Peepiceek will be head of Talking Mice in Narnia”

IfsThinkingShouldMayMadeI CanCountryMy OwnTalkingFourPlansFailingEastNosesDawnSwimSailSunriseMiceMajestyPawsNarnia
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know. God may call any one of us to respond to some far away problem or support those who have been so called. But we are finite and he will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.”

IfsThinkingKnowsNeedsFeelsMindMayPersonsHas BeensRealHelpingProblemCausesCan DoPoorSupportDoubtDutySickCharityWorthyPityVillageFar AwayFiniteKnowing GodWorthy Causes
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?" "But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan. "Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund. "I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

KnowsMayLittlesSaidReasonNamesKnowingMeetingsDearReason WhyKnow MeLucyNarniaDear Ones
Book:The voyage of the Dawn Treader
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“By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the the impossible.”

ThinkingMenTryingMindBelieveHumansMayMeanHas BeensChanceEffortCasesImpossibleAchieveHumilityFoolSucceedMethodUglyCleverNonsenseManifestRevolvingClever ManPretty WomanScrewtape Letters
Book:Joyful Christian
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“A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat "Do as you would be done by" till I am black in the fact, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God.”

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Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Love may, indeed, love the beloved when her beauty is lost: but not because it is lost. Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. Love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved… Of all powers he forgives most, but he condones least: he is pleased with little, but demands all.”

MayLittlesStillsLostLove IsDemandHatredAnd LoveForgivingCeaseBelovedSensitiveSpiteLost LoveRemovalInfirmityHer Beauty
Author:C. S. Lewis
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