PURCHASE The Misquotable C.S. Lewis
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This is part of a series exploring quotations attributed to C.S. Lewis that are questionable for one reason or another. Presently a new article is posted the first Saturday of each month (or sometimes the second if there are five Saturdays). There is an “at a glance” page HERE to quickly see what has been posted so far in this series. Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to read the INTRODUCTION to this series.
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but
when you look back, everything is different.”
Did you ever hear the funny story of the person who collected fake Lewis quotes and forgot to check to see if he had already posted on a popular one and when he did, he realized he didn’t? So, this post is correcting that oversight.
The above quotation is sometimes credited to Prince Caspian, one of Lewis’ Narnia book. More frequently it is merely incorrectly attributed to him with no source. How am I sure it is not in Prince Caspian? In addition to today’s technology enabling you to find false quotations, you can actually own an electronic copy of nearly all of Lewis’ books and the complete set of Narnia books is among them. So, searching not only that single title, I checked all seven stories to confirm it is not there.
What’s more I’ve also checked the rest of Lewis’ material that are available to me and that expression isn’t present. It’s possible the movie version of Prince Caspian might have that line, however, I checked IMDB’s listing of quotes from the movie and it wasn’t listed. When I get a chance to watch the movie again then I’ll update this post to note my findings. I also checked IMDB’s list of quotes for the other two movies and that expression wasn’t there.
While the above quotation is one I personally enjoy and believe is true, it doesn’t make it any better to falsely credit Lewis as the source. Presently I’m unaware of the correct source, but it’s likely to be one of those anonymous sayings that someone thought they read from Lewis. Sadly, this quotation is either in print or online in places that should have known better to cite without confirming the source. A couple I’m aware of are: 1. a post from 2013 from Focus on the Family and 2. a 2014 book by Dr. Paul Meier.
Another key place this quotation is found (and possibly where the fake citing began) is a 2012 post from a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper article of “Top 100 C.S. Lewis quotes.” Prior to 2012 I found the meaning of this quotation was ask in 2009 in Yahoo! Answers, but there is no mention of Lewis in the question or answers. Additionally, I traced the quote to a 2008 book entitled Every Life Is a Story That Deserves to Be Told by Harold Isbell (this book was re-printed in 2012) where no author is credited. Finally, speaking of credit, hats off to Crystal Kirgiss, who wrote an interesting piece on this fake quotation back in 2015 that helped me with some of the information.
The next article to be posted on April 8, 2017 is:
Related Articles:
What Lewis NEVER Wrote (Podcast)
Not Quite Lewis – Podcast Version
Not Quite Lewis – Questionable Lewisian Quotations (Conf. Paper)
Updated 4/8/2017
