In this article, we explore the profound wisdom of C.S. Lewis and present a collection of inspiring quotes that delve into various aspects of life. These carefully curated quotes offer deep insights into love, friendship, faith, courage, and imagination. C.S. Lewis, a renowned writer and thinker, has touched the hearts of many with his profound observations on the human condition. Through this set of quotes, we hope to illuminate Lewis's enduring legacy and provide you with inspiration and reflection. Whether you are grappling with life's challenges, seeking motivation, or simply wishing to gain perspective, Lewis's quotes are timeless companions that offer solace and guidance. Discover the transformative power of his words and let them resonate within your life.
Quotes on Love
"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness."
"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."
"Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not."
"Love is unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good."
"Real love isn't measured by how much you love someone, but by how much you inspire them to love themselves."
"We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness."
"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."
"We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us."
"While we have our private loves, we must not forget that they are mortgaged to our dearest Lovable."
Quotes on Friendship
"Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another, 'What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...'"
"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."
"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…any of these chances might have kept us apart."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are."
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
"The very condition of having Friends is that we should want something else besides Friends."
"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities."
"True friends face in the same direction, toward common projects, interests, and goals."
"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."
"Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods."
"It is when we are most lost that we sometimes find our truest friends."
Quotes on Faith
"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."
"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods."
"We must show our Christian colors if we are to be true to Jesus Christ."
"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there."
"Faith, in the sense in which I am using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted."
"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"Relying on God has to start all over every day, as if nothing has yet been done."
"God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain."
"Faith is not merely a feeling; it's a commitment to dedicate one's life to what is true."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
Quotes on Courage
"Courage, dear heart."
"Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it."
"What you want is something more than mere comfort. You want something you can hardly form. You want the fairy tale that is about you and ends in marriage, but you may not even know that."
"Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."
"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."
"Courage isn't the absence of fear but deciding that something is more important than fear."
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains."
Quotes on Imagination
"Imagination is the organ of meaning."
"You can make anything by writing."
"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning."
"The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity."
"This is the core of the Gospel: that Jesus Christ died for our sins."
"No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty."
"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."
"What you want is something more than mere comfort. You want something you can hardly form. You want the fairy tale that is about you and ends in marriage, but you may not even know that."
"When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him."
"You must ask for God's help. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again."
"The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
"To love at all is to be vulnerable."
Quotes on Life
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are."
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
"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."
"We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us."
"We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."
"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
"When Christ died, he died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world."
"The past is frozen and no longer flows, and the present is all lit up with eternal rays."
"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."
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
Quotes on Happiness
"When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"True happiness consists in the knowledge of true causes."
"Happiness is not the goal, but the by-product."
"If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them."
"No man can be an exile if he remembers that all the world is one city."
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."
"Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is 'finding his place in it,' while really it is finding its place in him."
"The joy of the Lord is our strength."
"Humankind cannot bear very much reality."
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are."
Quotes on Truth
"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."
"Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed."
"The truth is, of course, that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one's life."
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
"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."
"Odd, the way the less the Bible is read the more it is translated."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"At the end of the day, the truth stands alone."
"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."
"What you want is something more than mere comfort. You want something you can hardly form. You want the fairy tale that is about you and ends in marriage, but you may not even know that."
Quotes on Change
"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."
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
"Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror."
"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 more often he feels without acting, the less he will ever be able to act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel."
"If you find yourself inclined to practice humility, make sure you don't do so whilst looking down on others."
"Relying on God has to start all over every day, as if nothing has yet been done."
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you."
"You've got to get out of the box more often than not."
"It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence."
Quotes on Wisdom
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."
"We are what we believe we are."
"The truth is, of course, that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one's life."
"No man can be an exile if he remembers that all the world is one city."
"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."
"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
"We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us."
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
"When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place."
"You must ask for God's help. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again."
Final words
In bringing together these insightful quotes by C.S. Lewis, we delve into themes central to the human experience. Each quote serves as a beacon guiding us toward better understanding aspects of love, friendship, faith, courage, imagination, life, happiness, truth, change, and wisdom. Lewis’s words are not just reflections on these themes; they act as compasses pointing us toward living a more fulfilled life. His ability to capture profound truths in simple words makes his quotes timeless treasures. As you ponder over these quotes, allow them to inspire and challenge you, and let them illuminate various aspects of your journey. C.S. Lewis's wisdom is a reminder of the transformative power of thoughtful reflection, urging us to live with kindness, courage, and depth.
