The quotations of

C. S. Lewis

British writer, lay theologian, and scholar

1898–1963

151 quotes, most often on God, Christianity and Morality. Part of the Writers collection.

Morality, like numinous awe, is a jump; in it, man goes beyond anything that can be ‘given’ in the facts of experience.
The Problem of Pain
- Morality
The salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world.
“The Road to Begin Your Life ((27 September 2007))”, 58.
- Theology
Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery’s shadow or reflection: the fact that you don’t merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.
A Grief Observed (1961), Pt. I
If we did not bring to the examinations of our instincts a knowledge of their comparative dignity we could never learn it from them.
The Abolition of Man
- Philosophy
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.
A Grief Observed
Unless the religious claims of the Bible are again acknowledged, its literary claims will, I think, be given only ‘mouth honour’ and that decreasingly.
They Asked for a Paper
- Christianity
All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.
The Four Loves (1960), Ch. VI
- Time
Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire.
The Problem of Pain
- Christianity
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
- Theology
If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows…then we must starve eternally.
The Problem of Pain
- Theology
There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.
The Screwtape Letters (1942), Preface
- Theology
I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
- Charity
Who will take medicine unless he knows he is in the grip of disease?
- Theology
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
- Charity
It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.
- Virtue

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