A universe whose only claim to be believed in rests on the validity of inference must not start telling us the inference is invalid. C. S. Lewis More Quotes by C. S. Lewis More Quotes From C. S. Lewis If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means that you are very conceited indeed. C. S. Lewis conceitedhumilitymean If devils exist, their first aim is to give you an anesthetic -- to put you off your guard. Only if that fails, do you become aware of them. C. S. Lewis devilgivingfirsts There is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating them from the "wisdom" of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline , and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique. C. S. Lewis wisemenreality If naturalism were true then all thoughts whatever would be wholly the result of irrational causes. It cuts its own throat. C. S. Lewis atheismcuttingatheist Humility is self-forgetfulness. C. S. Lewis forgetfulnesshumilityself There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. C. S. Lewis heartheaventhinking We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. C. S. Lewis ambitionjoysex There is no use in talking as if forgiveness were easy. For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again. C. S. Lewis doneusetalking 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. C. S. Lewis creativitytruthart A creature revolting against a creator is revolting against the source of his own powers-including even his power to revolt...It is like the scent of a flower trying to destroy the flower. C. S. Lewis atheismfloweratheist We 'have all we want' is a terrible saying when 'all' does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St. Augustine says somewhere, 'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full - there's nowhere for Him to put it.' C. S. Lewis doegivinghands But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do. C. S. Lewis eyereadingnight There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. C. S. Lewis gnatscivilizationart Prayer does not change God; it changes me. C. S. Lewis change-godprayerdoe Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. C. S. Lewis majestytaughtway I came alive when I started loving you. C. S. Lewis loving-youshort-lovealive When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. C. S. Lewis growing-uphealingfear Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart. C. S. Lewis silencehurtheart If God is Love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness. And it appears, from all the records, that though He has often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense. C. S. Lewis recordsdefinitionskindness For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition. C. S. Lewis causesimaginationreason
