100+ Powerful C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity Quotes for Inspiration & Reflection

"Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes they are friends, sometimes lovers, sometimes brothers or wives or husbands."

"The Law of Human Nature is something different from mere social convention."

"It's the only part of the universe where moral good or evil can appear."

"When you think about it, we all act as if we believe in a real Right and Wrong."

"These, then, are the two points I wanted to make: first, that people do not differ about the Law of Nature, but only in their obedience to it."

"If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not be what we call 'good' in the ordinary sense."

"The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play; our instincts are merely the keys."

"We know that the moment you have two things—even two inanimate objects—there comes a moment when one must be put first."

"The Rule of Decent Behavior is much more complicated than the rules of grammar."

"What we call the moral law is not simply our notion of right behavior; it is rather a real law among us."

"All sorts of people talk as if the differences between the great religions were merely trivial ones."

"The Moral Law is not just an idea in our minds—it is a fact as real as the physical world."

"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."

"God is not a being who exists alongside others; He is existence itself."

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists."

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

"A man can’t go on being a Christian if he’s always looking at himself."

"The infinite future is still ahead of us, and God wants us to let Him turn us into creatures that can live in that world."

"Heaven is not a place, but a state of being in perfect relationship with God."

"Theology is like a map. You are not now trying to see through the map but to use it for something else."

"You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

"God is not a gentleman; He is not even a person—not exactly—but He is more than a person."

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."

"God is the only comfort, and the supreme terror; the only guarantee of safety—and the highest of all dangers."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains."

"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains."

"We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to."

"To suffer is nothing; but to suffer and learn—that is the blessing."

"The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last."

"Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

"Hardship may be the only thing that can penetrate our illusions of self-sufficiency."

"The problem of the Christian life is precisely that it demands the surrender of something we hold dear."

"God allows us to suffer so that we may become capable of true love and humility."

"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."

"The necessity for regeneration is hidden until pain drags it into daylight."

"God is preparing us for something so glorious that no suffering can compare."

"Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self."

"Every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something different."

"The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become."

"Good and bad, however, are names of things that exist; sin is the name of something that does not exist."

"Repentance is not merely being sorry for sins, but a change of direction."

"We are not really allowed to ‘forgive’ others unless we recognize that they need forgiveness."

"The Christian way is different: lucky me, I'm not what I was meant to be, but I can become it."

"The war against self is the only war in which we are commanded to kill our enemy."

"We must admit that we are sinners before we can become saints."

"Conversion means not merely going from bad to good, but from self-centeredness to God-centeredness."

"The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals."

"The first step is to recognize that we are not the masters of our own house."

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of changing moods."

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation."

"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I came to believe in God, not because I wanted to, but because I thought He was there."

"Faith means believing in things when reason cannot see the end."

"Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a way of life."

"It is by talking about God that we come to more faith; by acting as if we had more faith that we come to have it."

"The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact."

"Believing things without evidence is not faith; it is credulity."

"Faith is the strength by which a soul clings to a truth against all contrary pressures."

"Faith is not the opposite of reason; it is the conclusion of reason."

"The Christian faith is not built on feelings, but on facts."

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good."

"The rule for all of us is perfectly simple: Do to others as you would have them do to you."

"You can’t love a person unless you know them, and you can’t know them unless you try to love them."

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

"To love at all is to be vulnerable."

"The highest activity of creature is to love its Creator and next, to love its fellow creatures."

"Need-love cries to God from the depths of loneliness. Gift-love longs to give itself."

"Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."

"It is safer to be married to the ugliest woman on earth than to be alone with your own ego."

"We grow out of selfishness through love."

"The demand to be loved is the greatest of all tyrannies."

"Love is less mysterious than we think; it is more a decision than a feeling."

"Pride is the chief cause of every sin and the root of all evil."

"The devil is the oldest resident of hell, and his sin was pride."

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man."

"It is pride which first makes us feel inferior."

"Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are sins; but they are small compared to pride."

"There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular than pride."

"Proud people are 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."

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."

"The moment you think you are safe from pride, you are already in its grip."

"Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, contentment, or even common sense."

"You never realize how proud you are until you try to humble yourself."

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself."

"The New Man is more himself than the old."

"Christians are not expected to be better than others because they are wiser or nobler, but because Christ lives in them."

"You must ask God to give you the new self, again and again, all day long."

"The entire purpose of Christianity is to transform you into a new creature."

"We are not merely to be good, but to become gods."

"It is not a question of improving the old self, but of receiving a new one."

"The change from being a natural man to a spiritual man is as great as the change from non-life to life."

"You must hand over your whole self—all your wishes, dreams, and selfish desires."

"The goal is not just moral improvement, but complete transformation."

"We are not born Christians; we become them."

"The Christian life is not a set of rules, but a new kind of life altogether."

"You are not just healing a broken machine; you are creating a new being."

"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."

"Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning."

"Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered."

"Theology is the science of God, and it demands the same rigor as any other science."

"Christians should not be afraid of honest intellectual inquiry."

"You must train your baby not to grab everything he sees, but not to hate the desire for food either."

"Thinking is hard work, and most people prefer entertainment."

"The heart cannot delight in what the mind rejects as false."

"A silly idea is no more dangerous if some great man once said it."

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings."

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn."

"Logic is still the best protection against sentimental nonsense."

"If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next."

"Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you will get neither."

"The Christian hope is not wishful thinking, but confident expectation."

"It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

"We are far too easily pleased."

"This world is not our home; we are strangers and pilgrims."

"The promise of Scripture is not that we shall avoid tragedy, but that we shall be transformed by it."

"Heaven is not just endless life; it is joy without end."

"Our Lord finds our desires too weak, not too strong."

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us."

"The resurrection is not a myth; it is history with a supernatural dimension."

"Eternal life is not just endless duration, but a quality of life found only in God."