C S Lewis Quotes

The following quotes are from C.S.Lewis', not GK Chesterton, The Joyful Christian, a collection of Readings. It is always good food in a funk.

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.

Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor, act as if you did.

If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

The most precious gift marriage gave me was this constant impact of something very close and intimate yet all the time unmistakably other, resistant-in a word, real.

Now Faith,... is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. ...That is why Faith is such a a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods "where they get off," you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but jsut a creature dithering to and fro, with beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion, Consequently, one must train the habit of Faith.

He is that Object to admire which is simply to be awake, to have entered the real world; not to appreciate which is to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all.

The process of living seems to consist in coming to realize truths so ancient and simple that, if stated, they sound like barren platitudes. They cannot sound otherwise to those who have not had relevant experience: that is why there is no such teaching of real truths possible and every generation starts from scratch...

I have seen great beauty of spirit in some who were great sufferers.

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. That is why children's games are so important. They are always pretending to be grown-ups-playing soldiers, playing shop. But all the time they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits, so that the pretense of being grown-ups helps them grow up in earnest.

Joy is the serious business of heaven.

This last bit from Mr. Lewis' reading reminds me again of the Song, "Come to the Feast of Love, here ever knowing - Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal." ("Come Ye Disconsolate" My Cry Ascends New Parish Psalms, G.Wilber)