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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“...we sacrifice other species to our own not because our own has any objective metaphysical privilege over others, but simply because it is ours. It may be very natural to have this loyalty to our own species, but let us hear no more from the naturalists about the "sentimentality" of anti-vivisectionists. If loyalty to our own species - preference for man simply because we are men - is not sentiment, then what is?”

IfsMenMayNaturalAnimalSacrificeSpeciesPrivilegeLoyaltyObjectivesSentimentsAnimal RightsMetaphysicalPreferenceSentimentalityNaturalist
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another.”

HumansMayImportantWholeAgeRaceCuttingGenerationsDangerErrorsHuman RaceCharacteristicsDeceivingCommerceE CommerceScrewtape Letters
Book:Paved with Good Intentions: A Demon’s Road Map to Your Soul
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“If the immutable heart can be grieved by the puppets of its own making, it is Divine Omnipotence, no other, that has subjected it, freely, and in a humility that passes understanding. If the world exists not chiefly that we may love God, but that God may love us, yet that very fact, on a deeper level, is so for our sakes. If He who in Himself can lack nothing chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed.”

IfsWorldNeedsHeartMayFactsUnderstandingLevelsHumilityDivineNeededSakeDeeperGod LovePuppetsOmnipotence
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish.The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers-or should I say, nurses?-will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us.”

MenWayWantShouldMayLittlesRealMightTeacherPlansTeachingIgnoranceWasteFellowsBusySpreadNurseShould IPenaltiesToilIncentivesConceitToo BusyAbolitionReassuringDuncesVermin
Book:The Screwtape Letters & Screwtape Proposes a Toast
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“We sit down before the picture in order to have something done to us, not that we may do things with it. The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way (there is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out.”

WayFirstsLooksMayArtDoneOrderDemandDeserveAskingSurrenderWorks Of Art
Book:An Experiment in Criticism
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“Temperance referred not abstaining, but going the right length and no further...of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he wants to give the money to the poor, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying.”

PeopleMenWantGivingMayDoeReasonWholeChristianCoursesStrongEnjoyPoorToo MuchParticularDutyDrinkDrinkingLikesLengthDrunkennessTemperanceDrinking Too MuchAbstainingStrong Drink
Author:C. S. Lewis
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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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“Many a man, brought up in the glib profession of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading Astronomy to realize for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.”

MenFirstsMayMomentsRealityFormReadingRealizingReligiousChristianityFirst TimeAccountsProfessionAstronomyAbandonThat MomentIndifferentShallowReligious Experience
Book:Miracles: A Preliminary Study
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“What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.”

TryingMayEyeUniverseNumbersHonestTestsExperienceRingsWarningDeceivingDeceivedWrong TurnWarning Signs
Book:Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
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