“Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.”
Time
“I gave in, and admitted that God was God.”
FaithAll Quotes by C. S. Lewis
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
Good“I gave in, and admitted that God was God.”
Faith“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”
Art“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.”
Happiness“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
God“Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.”
History“Eros will have naked bodies Friendship naked personalities.”
Friendship“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'”
God“How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.”
Age“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.”
Change“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”
Failure“Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.”
Faith“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Religion“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.”
War“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
Fear“What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”
Men“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”
Experience“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”
Life“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
Art