C. S. Lewis quotes

C.S. Lewis was a British writer and academic, born in 1898. He is best known for his captivating fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, which has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. Lewis was also a renowned Christian apologist, using his intellect and wit to defend and explain the principles of Christianity in an accessible manner. His works range from fiction to non-fiction, including influential books like Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. Lewis's profound insights into faith and human nature continue to resonate, making him one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

- C. S. Lewis

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.

- C. S. Lewis

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

- C. S. Lewis

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.

- C. S. Lewis

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

- C. S. Lewis

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

- C. S. Lewis

Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.

- C. S. Lewis

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

- C. S. Lewis

I gave in, and admitted that God was God.

- C. S. Lewis

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

- C. S. Lewis

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

- C. S. Lewis

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

- C. S. Lewis

With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.

- C. S. Lewis

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

- C. S. Lewis

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

- C. S. Lewis

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

- C. S. Lewis

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

- C. S. Lewis

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.

- C. S. Lewis

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

- C. S. Lewis

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

- C. S. Lewis

The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

- C. S. Lewis

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.

- C. S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

- C. S. Lewis

There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.

- C. S. Lewis

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

- C. S. Lewis

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.

- C. S. Lewis

How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.

- C. S. Lewis

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

- C. S. Lewis

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

- C. S. Lewis

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

- C. S. Lewis