Essential C.S. Lewis

Quote of the Day Archive

Below are the most recent quotes that I’ve shared on the main page that are only listed for that day there. If you want a certain month choose the link before the list to catch-up on what you’ve missed, or revisit those you enjoyed. Of course, please consider reading the original works by Lewis in context.

JANUARY QUOTES / FEBRUARY QUOTES
MARCH QUOTES / APRIL QUOTES

5/1

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us: we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

Letter to Father Peter Bide
(from Volume 3 on 4/29/1959)

5/2

“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”

The Magician’s Nephew
(Published on 5/2/1955)

5/3

“There are two kinds of self-hatred which look rather alike in their earlier stages, but of which one is wrong from the beginning and the other right to the end.”

Two Ways with the Self
(Published in The Guardian on 5/3/1940)

5/4

“Yes— it is sometimes hard to obey St. Paul’s ‘Rejoice.’ We must try to take life moment by moment. The actual present is usually pretty tolerable, I think, if only we refrain from adding to its burden that of the past and the future.”

Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne
(from Volume 3 on 5/4/1962)

5/5

“Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes”

The Screwtape Letters #1
(first published in The Guardian on 5/2/1941)

5/6

“The Christian must wage endless war against the clamour of the ego as ego: but he loves and approves selves as such, though not their sins.”

Two Ways with the Self
(Published in The Guardian on 5/3/1940)

5/7

“No doubt all history in the last resort must be held by Christians to be a story with a divine plot.”

The Discarded Image
(Published on 5/7/1964)

5/8

“The process of living seems to consist in coming to realise truths so ancient and simple that, if stated, they sound like barren platitudes. They cannot sound otherwise to those who have not had the relevant experience.”

Letter to Dom Bede Griffiths OSB
(from Volume 2 on 5/8/1939)

5/9

(Screwtape boasts:) “All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour.”

The Screwtape Letters - II
(first published in The Guardian on 5/9/1941)

5/10

“You don’t see Nature till you believe in the Supernatural: don’t get the full, hot, salty tang of her except by contrast with the pure water from beyond the world. Those who mistake Nature for the All are just those who can never realise her as a particular creature with her own flamed, terrible, beautiful individuality”

Letter to Dom Bede Griffiths OSB
(from Volume 2 on 5/10/1945)

Understanding and Appreciating C.S. Lewis

Recent Quotes

5/11

“You cannot know that everything in the representation of a thing is symbolical unless you have independent access to the thing and can compare it with the representation.”

Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism (“Fern-seed and Elephants”)
(Lecture given on 5/11/1959)

5/12

“What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.”

Miracles: A Preliminary Study
(Published 5/12/1947)

5/13

“Christianity...is precisely the story of a great Miracle. A naturalistic Christianity leaves out all that is specifically Christian.”

Miracles: A Preliminary Study
(Published 5/12/1947)

5/14

“It is probable that Nature is not really in Time and almost certain that God is not. Time is probably (like perspective) the mode of our perception.”

Miracles: A Preliminary Study
(Published 5/12/1947)

5/15

“Yes, pride is a perpetual nagging temptation. Keep on knocking it on the head but don’t be too worried about it. As long as one knows one is proud one is safe from the worst form of pride.”

Letter to Genia Goelz
(from Volume 3 on 5/15/1952)

5/16

Screwtape advised Wormword:
“Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones.”

The Screwtape Letters - III
(first published in The Guardian on 5/16/1941)