CS Lewis Quotations

by LittleToe 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  LittleToe

  What resonates with you?

  “Every war, every famine or plague, almost every deathbed, is the monument to a petition that was not granted.”

  C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, A Harvest/HBJ Book, 1963, 1964, p. 58.
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  MerryMagdalene

  Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!"

  ~Merry
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  LittleToe

  A personal favourite, albeit highly contentious in some circles:

  “There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ's birth may have been in this position. And always, of course, there are a great many people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent beliefs all jumbled together.”

  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperCollins Edition 2001, 1952 p. 209.
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  daystar

  Almost every man we meet requires some civility, — requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me. My friend gives me entertainment without requiring any stipulation on my part. A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

  Dune

  (Although, I thought the "little death that brings total obliteration" was the orgasm. ??)

  Sorry, no CS Lewis quotes out of me today.
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  MerryMagdalene

  And always, of course, there are a great many people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent beliefs all jumbled together.

  And I thought I was the only oneLooks like I have more friends than I realized.LOL

  This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

  (sorry I don't have sources...my bad)

  ~Merry
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  avishai

  There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ's birth may have been in this position. And always, of course, there are a great many people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent beliefs all jumbled together.”

  I remember a similar quote by CS Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia. As a young JW, it hit me pretty strongly. Here's the quote from "The last battle".

  But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are the opposites, I take to me the services which thou has done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek

  .”
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  LittleToe

  While I believe that many of the arguments that Lewis used were for his generation and day, and in particular for the Christian attempting to buoy up his own "belief", by modern standards they do look a little shabby in places.

  That having been said, he has the (dubious, to some) honour of being appreciated by Evangelicals and Catholics alike, and even holds a place in the estimation of some high ranking Mormons (unusually enough). His writings also had a large influence on the "Alpha" course.

  Some hardliners are shocked by his ecumenical approach, but nonetheless he wasn't entirely the liberal he might otherwise appear.

  I hope no reader will suppose that 'mere' Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of existing communions - as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. THe hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in...

  ...When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall.

  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperCollins Edition 2001, 1952 p. XV, XVI.

  Here's a quote that I just stumbled upon by flipping through the book, that I've been looking for for ages:

  "Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Chriistl we do not know taht only those who know Him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself."

  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperCollins Edition 2001, 1952 p. 64.
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  LittleToe

  I just stumbled across this little gem that I imagine JamesThomas would like, on the Net, looking up the source of that quote for Merry:

  Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable... How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask - half our great theological and metaphysical problems - are like that."

  CS Lewis, A Grief Observed, Seabury, 1961

  Avishai:
  It's been many years since I read the Narnia Chronicles. I don't even recall that quote, but it's certainly interesting, thanks

  Merry:
  I think the source is A Grief Observed, Seabury, 1961, but I neither know the page, nor have the book to confirm, sorry.
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  MerryMagdalene

  LT: Thanks for the reference. I enjoy being introduced to new (or old) material that gives pause for thought. I had not bothered to read C.S. Lewis before you started this thread (I must confess), but am thoroughly enjoying seeing what resonates with others as well as with myself (although newly happening upon it).

  ~Merry
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  bebu

  Here's a classic.

  According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in camparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind... If you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, "How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?" The point is that each person's pride is in competition witheveryone else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive--is competitive by its very nature--while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it htan the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way that the other vices are not.

  It is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity--it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but man and God.

  In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that--and therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison--you do not know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

  That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and things them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of Pride towards their fellow men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this deathtrap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find our religious life is making us feel that we are good--above all, that we are better than someone else--I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.

  Mere Christianity

  Avishai, that excerpt rates as one of my very, very favorite ones!

  bebu