Most people who know me are aware of my affinity for C.S. Lewis. As a kid I first met the author via his Narnia series and later in life began reading Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, Screwtape Letters and others.? While I haven’t read all of them (I would like to some day say I have) there are many quotes from his writings that I really love. Here are a few:
Mere Christianity
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
God in the Dock
“One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
“I didn?t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don?t recommend Christianity.”
The Problem of Pain
?Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.?
?The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word “love”, and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest “well pleased”.?
Letters to an American Lady
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
The Four Loves
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
Collected Letters
There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
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