C. S. Lewis quotes - page 14

Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. (C. S. Lewis)
Friends look in the same direction. Lovers look at each other - that is, in opposite directions. To transfer bodily all that belongs to one relationship into the other is blundering. View quote
C. S. Lewis
They might break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds. View quote
C. S. Lewis
He could see also (but the word "seeing" is now plainly inadequate) wherever the ribbons or serpents of light intersected minute corpuscles of momentary brightness: and he knew somehow that these particles were the secular generalities of which history tells - people, institutions, climates of opinion, civilizations, arts, sciences and the like - ephemeral coruscations that piped their short song and vanished. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of men? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. View quote
C. S. Lewis
I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters. View quote
C. S. Lewis
We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. View quote
C. S. Lewis
God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing-not even just one person-but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance ... (The) pattern of this three-personal life is ... the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. View quote
C. S. Lewis
But not all the cords were individuals: some of them were universal truths or universal qualities. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent, rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him, will not be wholly dejected by losing her, would rather have it so than never to have seen her at all. (C. S. Lewis)
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. View quote
C. S. Lewis
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn. View quote
C. S. Lewis
The devil...the prowde spirit...cannot endure to be mocked. View quote
C. S. Lewis
The Guide sang: The new age, the new art, the new ethic and thought, And fools crying, Because it has begun It will continue as it has begun! The wheel runs fast, therefore the wheel will run Faster for ever, The old age is done, We have new lights and see without the sun. View quote
C. S. Lewis
But what of the poor Ghosts who never get into the omnibus at all? View quote
C. S. Lewis
Need-love cries to God from our poverty; Gift-love longs to serve, or even to suffer for, God; Appreciative love says: "We give thanks to thee for thy great glory." View quote
C. S. Lewis
Are the gods not just? View quote
C. S. Lewis
It is hard to have patience with people who say 'There is no death' or 'Death doesn't matter. View quote
C. S. Lewis
[M]y friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, "What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and most hostile to, the idea of escape?" and gave the obvious answer: jailers. View quote
C. S. Lewis
It comes, it comes!' they sang. 'Sleepers awake! It comes, it comes, it comes.' One dreadful glance over my shoulder I essayed - not long enough to see (or did I see?) the rim of the sunrise that shoots Time dead with golden arrows and puts to flight all phantasmal shapes. Screaming, I buried my face in the fold of the Teacher's robe. 'The morning! The morning!' I cried. 'I am caught by the morning and I am a ghost. (C. S. Lewis)
If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They might break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds. View quote
C. S. Lewis
At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. View quote
C. S. Lewis
He [God] lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. View quote
C. S. Lewis
Now, to-day, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it. View quote
C. S. Lewis