There are few more famed Christian authors than Clive Staples Lewis, a former Oxford Professor, Christian apologist, and lay theologian. He was a writer who captured the imaginations of children across the world with his fictional tales of Narnia. But C.S. Lewis is also famed for his more spiritual works – books such as Mere Christianity and The Four Loves. These are books that, to this day, remain some of the most widely read texts on the Christian faith.
Today, November 29, marks 120 years since C.S. Lewis’ birth. So we thought we’d celebrate his life by revisiting some of Lewis’ thoughts on God, faith, life and much more.
Quotes on Christianity
“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
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” – C.S. Lewis
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” –
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” –
“The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God’s love for us does not.” –
“I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.” –
“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.” – C.S. Lewis
“God can’t give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.” –
“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.” – C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” – C.S. Lewis
“Whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.” – C.S. Lewis
Quotes on Love, Friendship & Life
“Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .” – C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” –
“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.” –
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” –
“Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart.” –
“You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.” –
Quotes about Books & Reading
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” –
“I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.” –
“It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” –
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” –
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” –
“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” –
Quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia
“Courage, dear heart.” –
“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 would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,” said the Lion.” – C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
“Things never happen the same way twice.” –
“Do not dare not to dare.” –
“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.” –
“Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.” – C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.” –
“He’ll be coming and going” he had said. “One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down–and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.” – C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
