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For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.

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
Medievalist
Novelist
Belfast
Ireland
Clive Hamilton
N. W. Clerk
CS Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis
C.S. Lewis
Conform
Problem
Alike
Soul
Wishes
Men
Magic
Wise
Subdue
Wish
Cardinal
Cardinals
Science
Applied
Reality

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You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve, said Aslan. And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.
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Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow.
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Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.
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When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive.
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the Divine Nature wounds and perhaps destroys us merely by being what it is.
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Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.
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First be sure that you know exactly what you want to say. Then be sure you have said exactly that.
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Life is too deep for words, so don't try to describe it, just live it.
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The first demand any work of art makes upon us is to surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.
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Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.
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Writing is like a 'lust,' or like 'scratching when you itch.' Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.
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With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.
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All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be. This is elementary
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The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.
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Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean that's the whole art and joy of words.
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As long as this deliberate refusal to understand things from above, even where such understanding is possible, continues, it is idle to talk of any final victory over materialism.
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I prefer being honest to being 'honest to God.'
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I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.
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I daren't come and drink, said Jill. Then you will die of thirst, said the Lion. Oh dear! said Jill, coming another step nearer.I suppose I must go and look for another stream then. There is no other stream, said the Lion.
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No, I don’t wish I knew Heaven was like the picture in my Great Divorce, because, if we knew that, we should know it was no better. The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know: no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven.
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