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Men propound mathematical theorems in besieged cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on the scaffold, discuss a new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache it is our nature.

C. S. Lewis

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C. S. Lewis
Age: 64 †
Born: 1898
Born: January 1
Died: 1963
Died: January 1
Autobiographer
Broadcaster
Essayist
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Literary Scholar
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Belfast
Ireland
Clive Hamilton
N. W. Clerk
CS Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis
C.S. Lewis
Men
Mathematical
Condemned
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Metaphysical
Besieged
Argument
Discuss
Scaffold
Wall
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Comb
Hair
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Quebec
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Make
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Advancing
Thermopylae

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I hope I do not offend God by making my Communions in the frame of mind I have been describing. The command, after all, was Take, eat: not Take, understand.
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As St. Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us to be not only as harmless as doves, but also as wise as serpents. He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head.
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'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.
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Friends are seldom found they are made.
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Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often quite mistaken as to what their motives are.
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Whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want
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Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden).
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And she never could remember and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book.
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Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.
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Nobody who gets enough food and clothing in a world where most are hungry and cold has any business to talk about 'misery.'
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Necessity may not be the opposite of freedom, and perhaps a man is most free when, instead of producing motives, he could only say, I am what I do.
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We are all fallen creatures and all very hard to live with.
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The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four.
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In God's dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.
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For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted.
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We want to know not how we should pray if we were perfect but how we should pray being as we now are ... It is no use to ask God with factitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with the desire for B. We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.
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It is the magician's bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.
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If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most, or else just silly.
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The prayer preceding all prayers is 'May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.'
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The distinction between pretending you are better than you are and beginning to be better in reality is finer than moral sleuth hounds conceive.
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