The following is part of a series exploring quotations attributed to C.S. Lewis that are questionable for one reason or another. I’ve collected and expanded this material in a book (THE MISQUOTABLE C.S. LEWIS, available from the publisher, Amazon, and via Google Books). That book examines 75 quotations, and so it has information not yet posted here. I’m continuing the series by posting adapted material from the book.
There is an “at a glance” page to quickly see what has been posted so far in this series, which also includes a list of the other quotes I’ve identified as questionable. Also, if you haven’t already, consider reading the INTRODUCTION to this series to gain an understanding of the three main categories (NOT Lewis, ALMOST Lewis and NOT QUITE Lewis quotations).
“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”
Despite being very familiar with failure, C.S. Lewis never wrote the above statement, or anything similar to it. While known primarily for the successful series of Narnia books, Lewis also succeeded in writing many other works, yet he failed at his first writing ambition. He wanted to be a poet, but this dream was over by the early 1930’s. Early in the following decade he lamented to a friend about feeling he was a failure at giving talks to the Royal Air Force. It was also in the 1940’s that I discovered this quotation became associated with the businessman (and inventor), Charles Kettering. Results from Google Books point to an unknown issue of Reader’s Digest from 1944, but more recent citations reference it appearing in the May, 1989 edition of Reader’s Digest.
Lewis is known for offering encouragement to others and a good deal of advice can be found in his published letters. In the collection, Words to Live by there are two entries for the topic of failure. In the first, from a correspondent written on January 20, 1942, he points out that no matter how many times one fails if you keep on trying then you will not really be defeated. The other is a fairly long entry from a letter dated August 2, 1953, to his godson, Laurence Harwood, who had failed qualifying examinations. Among the comments he makes is this: “I think life is rather like a lumpy bed in a bad hotel. At first you can’t imagine how you can lie on it, much less sleep in it. But presently one finds the right position and finally one is snoring away.”
Additionally, in the essay “We Have No ‘Right to Happiness,’” he observed,
“We depend for a very great deal of our happiness or misery on circumstances outside all human control. A right to happiness doesn’t, for me, make much more sense than a right to be six feet tall, or to have a millionaire for your father, or to get good weather whenever you want to have a picnic.”
The next article is:
“Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.”
Related Articles:
Exploring C.S. Lewis Misquotes and Misconceptions (6-part podcast series)
What Lewis NEVER Wrote (Podcast)
Not Quite Lewis – Podcast Version
Not Quite Lewis – Questionable Lewisian Quotations (Conf. Paper)
