C.S. Lewis, renowned for his profound intellect and engaging narrative style, offers quotes that speak to the essence of humanity, divinity, and relationships. His words transcend time, providing clarity and inspiration across various aspects of life. This compilation categorizes Lewis’s insights into easily digestible themes, allowing readers to explore the timeless wisdom found within his work. Whether contemplating love, friendship, courage, or faith, there’s a C.S. Lewis quote that resonates deeply with every reader. Similar to unwrapping a present of knowledge, each quote reveals a deeper truth, comforting the soul and igniting the spirit. Dive into these thematic collections and discover how his thoughts challenge, comfort, and connect with everyday experiences.
Quotes on Love
"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken."
"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness."
"There is no safe investment. To love is to be vulnerable."
"The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not."
"When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place."
"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"
"We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us."
"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."
"While we are afraid of the narrow pitilessness of the law, let us be afraid also of the broad indulgence of mere kindness."
"You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."
Quotes on Friendship
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"
"Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?"
"The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are."
"We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves."
"In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one University instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting - any of these chances might have kept us apart."
"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities."
"What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it."
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
"Friendship can be a school of virtue"
"Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction."
"I have no duty to be anyone's Friend, and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity."
"It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence."
Quotes on Courage
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
"Courage, dear heart."
"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."
"Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success."
"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"It is right that you should begin again every day. There is no end to this discipline."
"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."
"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage."
Quotes on Faith
"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods."
"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."
"A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell."
"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."
"We are what we believe we are."
"We become that which we habitually love."
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
"If God forgives us we must forgive ourselves otherwise it is like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him."
"At the end of the day, all of the prayers are answered. Sometimes the answer is ‘yes,’ sometimes ‘no,’ sometimes ‘wait,' and the hardest one for me is ‘grow’."
"Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it."
"A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered."
Quotes on Hope
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
"Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different?"
"You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"We are what we believe we are."
"Courage, dear heart."
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
"When Christ died, he died for you individually just as much as if you'd been the only man in the world."
"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
Quotes on Wisdom
"We are what we believe we are."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."
"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
"The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
"Courage, dear heart."
"It is right that you should begin again every day. There is no end to this discipline."
Quotes on Suffering
"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day."
"God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
"We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us."
"I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more."
"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."
"We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy."
"The road to a friend's house is never long."
"I have no duty to be anyone's Friend, and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity."
Quotes on Joy
"Joy is the serious business of heaven."
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."
"It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence."
"A pleasure is not full grown until it is remembered."
"The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal."
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
"Courage, dear heart."
"Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success."
"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities."
"We become that which we habitually love."
Quotes on Transformation
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"Courage, dear heart."
"Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different?"
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"Friendship can be a school of virtue"
"Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success."
"We become that which we habitually love."
Quotes on Truth
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing."
"You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
"We are what we believe we are."
"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
"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."
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
"Courage, dear heart."
"Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
"We become that which we habitually love."
"We are what we believe we are."
Final words
C.S. Lewis’s quotes are more than just words; they are reflections of an intricate intellect deeply understanding the human condition, faith, love, and friendship. His philosophical insights challenge us to examine truths about our lives, beliefs, and relationships. Lewis’s expressions on courage urge us to confront adversities head-on, while his wisdom on faith and hope guide us through darkness towards light. The timeless nature of these quotes speaks of universal truths that resonate beyond the constraints of time and circumstance. Each themed collection of quotes can serve as a guide to better navigate the multifaceted emotional and intellectual landscape of life, offering perpetual reminders of the beauty of human experience. Embrace these words as friends on your journey, providing comfort, challenge, and ultimately, transformation.
