Friday, June 20, 2014

Words from C.S. Lewis

Just a few of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis's book, Mere Christianity. I finished it recently and loved his insight, analogies, conciseness, and honesty. It had been on my list of books to read for years and it did not disappoint.


Enemy occupied territory- that is what the world is.
- Book 2 Chapter 2 The Invasion


After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.
- Book 3 Chapter 5 Sexual Morality


Virtue- even attempted virtue- brings light; indulgence brings fog.
- Book 3 Chapter 5 Sexual Morality


Love, as distinct from "being in love," is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God.
- Book 3 Chapter 6 Christian Marriage


(Speaking on pride) There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
- Book 3 Chapter 8 The Great Sin


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.
- Book 3 Chapter 8 The Great Sin