C. S. Lewis quotes - page 6

I want to have her back as an ingredient in the restoration of my past. Could I have wished her anything worse? Having got once through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do all over again? They call Stephen the first martyr. Hadn't Lazarus the rawer deal? (C. S. Lewis)
This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again....God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Our father was married twice,' continued Humanist. 'Once to a lady named Epichaerecacia, and afterwards to Euphuia... View quote
C. S. Lewis
A strict allegory is like a puzzle with a solution: a great romance is like a flower whose smell reminds you of something you can't quite place. I think the something is 'the whole quality of life as we actually experience it. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Then those people are right who say that Heaven and Hell are only states of mind?" "Hush," he said sternly. "Do not blaspheme. Hell is a state of mind - ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind - is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. View quote
C. S. Lewis
The First [Friend] is the alter ego, the man who first reveals to you that you are not alone in the world by turning out (beyond hope) to share all your most secret delights. There is nothing to be overcome in making him your friend; he and you join like raindrops on a window. But the Second Friend is the man who disagrees with you about everything... Of course he shares your interests; otherwise he would not become your friend at all. But he has approached them all at a different angle. he has read all the right books but has got the wrong thing out of every one... How can he be so nearly right, and yet, invariably, just not right? He is as fascinating (and infuriating) as a woman. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Looking for God-or Heaven-by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places. Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play. View quote
C. S. Lewis
"Everything" is a subject on which there is not much to be said. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil. (C. S. Lewis)
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. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. View quote
C. S. Lewis
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. View quote
C. S. Lewis
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. View quote
C. S. Lewis
I gave in, and admitted that God was God. View quote
C. S. Lewis
You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God. View quote
C. S. Lewis
How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete. View quote
C. S. Lewis
The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one! View quote
C. S. Lewis
The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil. (C. S. Lewis)
Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest. View quote
C. S. Lewis
With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere. View quote
C. S. Lewis
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. View quote
C. S. Lewis
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. View quote
C. S. Lewis