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C. S. Lewis Quotes

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Famous C. S. Lewis Quotes

“Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question "What on earth is he up to now?" will intrude. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

KnowsMenTryingMayMeanSaidEarthRememberWishAttentionTeachDogWasteLaysExcuseTricksExperimentsDevotionPerformingPeterSheepRatsNovelty
Book:Joyful Christian
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“Do you mean to say," asked Caspian, "that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you've never told me! It's really too bad for you. Because we have fairy-tales in which there are round worlds and I have always loved them … Have you ever been to the parts where people walk about upside-down?" Edmund shook his head. "And it isn't like that," he added. "There's nothing particularly exciting about a round world when you're there.”

PeopleWorldMeanThreeWalksBallsExcitingRoundsTalesFairyFairy TaleUpside DownRound World
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“But what would have been the good?" Aslan said nothing. "You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right – somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?" "To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that." "Oh dear," said Lucy. "But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan. "If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me – what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

IfsKnowsWayMeanChildrenHas BeensSaidHappensHappenedPleaseFindingsDearGet UpOne WayFollow MeLucy
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian
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“The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, guest in hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not a compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth.”

MenMeanFacesBloodSightFamiliarCompromiseGentleIronHallsGuestsFierceModestLimbsKnightsMeekMeeknessRaggedStumpsFerocityDemure
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“...here also forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. (This doesn't mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart - every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.)”

PeopleIfsThinkingTryingBelieveHeartMeanDoeSeemsWould BeNextAsksWishHurtEffortPayPromiseTasteForgivingCheatingBullyingResentmentCheatedBulliedMake OutHumiliateNo Cheating
Author:C. S. Lewis
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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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“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means that you are very conceited indeed.”

IfsThinkingFirstsMeanI CanDoneRealizingStepsHumilityProudAcquireThought ProvokingFirst StepsProvokingConceitedChristian Humility
Book:Joyful Christian
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“Man has got to take charge of Man.... Then real education, including pre-natal education. By real education I mean one that has no 'take-it-or-leave-it' nonsense. A real education makes the patient what it wants infallibly: whatever he or his parents try to do about it. Of course, it'll have to be mainly psychological at first. But we'll get on to biochemical conditioning int he end and direct manipulation of the brain.”

MenWantTryingFirstsMeanRealEndsCoursesParentBrainEducationDirectPatientIncludingPsychologicalNonsenseManipulationConditioningReal EducationNatal
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people - which is what I think it does mean - then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn't wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantWellsMeanDoeDesireActorsNamesWishTypeAmbitionBiggerCarefulBe CarefulGet Ahead
Book:God in the Dock
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“For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different, (and He rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”

PeopleHumansMeanDifferentHelpingBodyWishChristNaturalDifferencesChurchUnitedCommonShareMembersIronRejoiceHuman SocietyAffinityBody Of ChristCommon Life
Book:Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963
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“We must beware of the Past, mustn't we? I mean that any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting our own sins and forgiving those of others is certainly useless and usually bad for us. Notice in Dante that the lost souls are entirely concerned with their past! Not so the saved.”

MindMeanSoulPastEvilLostSinConcernedForgivingSavedUselessRepentFixingLost Souls
Book:Letters to an American Lady
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“A woman means by Unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others...thus, while the woman thinks of doing good offices and the man of respecting other people's rights, each sex, without any obvious unreason, can and does regard the other as radically selfish.”

PeopleThinkingMenGivingMeanDoeSexRightsTroubleHe ManOfficeRegardObviousSelfishDoing GoodRespecting OthersUnselfishnessScrewtape LettersSelfish MenGood Office
Author:C. S. Lewis
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