Favourite Lewis quotes

[sun-star]

I know it's hard to avoid typing out whole books, but do you have any favourite Lewis quotes?

[Elanor]

Well, I already put these in another thread, but at the time I was thinking, "we need a whole thread for his great quotes"! I guess great minds think alike. Here are the ones I posted before:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace”
--Mere Christianity

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. 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. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. … Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
--The Weight of Glory

[Tessar]

I don't know it off the top of my head, but the one where Aslan says that Susan 'fell by the wayside' always makes me tear up. She was always the 'doubting Thomas' and and that she finally gave up hope makes me sad .

[Rían]

great idea for a thread, sunny!

sorry, nothing right now, but I have about a million of them in mind ...

and I always thought that Susan would repent, btw - "once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen in Narnia" - didn't Aslan say that? She didn't die in England, so she would have had a chance to repent.

[hectorberlioz]

Well, there's a great anecdote about Tolkien and Lewis walking about town when a beggar comes and asks Lewis for a of change. Lewis gives him all his change. As they walk away Tolkien says "Jack, that was nice all right, but you shouldnt have given that man all than money, he's only going to use it in the pub". "Nonsense", Lewis says, " I myself would have used it in the pub".

There's also a great quote that really stood out from The Problem of Pain, something about Animals. Can't think of the right phrasing, so I'll come back later.

[Varnafindë]

"You, Sir Caspian," said Aslan, "might have known that you could be no true King of Narnia unless, like the Kings of old, you were a son of Adam and came from the world of Adam's sons. And so you are. Many years ago in that world, in a deep sea of that world which is called the South Sea, a shipload of pirates were driven by storm on an island. [...] Do you mark all this well, King Caspian?"

"I do indeed, Sir," said Caspian. "I was wishing that I came of a more honourable lineage."

"You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve," said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content."

From Prince Caspian

[inked]

Here's an excellent interview of Peter Kreeft for your listening pleasure. Its genesis is the re-publication of BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL - an imagined Socratic dialogue of CSL, Alduous Huxley, and John F. Kennedy after they all had died on 22 November 1963.

http://radio.nationalreview.com/betw...FjNzQ4N2IxNWQ=


I have been reading this little tome since its original publication in 1982. I would recommend it to you highly. The new version has some material I have not (yet) read since I just learned of its re-publication today.

[inked]

*bump* before this becomes unavailable on listening!

[Pitchike12]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

From Prince Caspian

This is a nice quote Varnafindë...