Updated 7/1/2020

UPDATE: Here’s a quick overview about this and TWO other fake Screwtape quotes…from my YouTube channel:

The following is part of a series exploring quotations attributed to C.S. Lewis that are questionable for one reason or another.

This is the first quote I’ve examined here that is not included in my 2018 book entitled THE MISQUOTABLE C.S. LEWIS. That book examines 75 quotations that are either falsely attributed to him, a paraphrase of him, or even if by him when isolated (out of context) it may be misunderstood. 

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, consider reading (if you haven’t done so already) the INTRODUCTION to this series to gain an understanding of the three main categories I used when labeling the material (NOT Lewis, ALMOST Lewis and NOT QUITE Lewis quotations).   

Satan said…but JESUS said!

This quotation (see image above) has been spreading on social media faster than any falsely attributed quotation I’ve examined before. I was first alerted to it on March 22, 2020, and posted a response that day in my Facebook group dedicated to the topic, Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations. As you see in the picture above, these contrasting words between Satan and Jesus were NOT written by C.S. Lewis. How do I know that?

If you’ve read my material before, then you know I have all of his Christian writings in electronic (searchable) form (even material not available to the general public) and also all of the books by Lewis that aren’t specifically aimed at the Christian market. Even though most versions of the memes either claim the quote was written in 1942 or comes from The Screwtape Letters, I searched ALL of his works and did not find it.

As I’ve stated before with other material falsely attributed to Lewis, it is OKAY to enjoy a quote or passage that he didn’t write. Just don’t claim he wrote it. Given the dozens of versions I’ve seen of this meme, someone can surely create one WITHOUT his name on it!

Something interesting about this quote is that, according to an article by Snopes on this issue, they could only find references to this quote starting this month (March 2020) and that Jerome Zeiler (a priest) posted something similar on March 17th on his Facebook page!

What did Lewis say that was related to this topic? Below are several quotations, but the best single place to read about his views on life’s struggles is The Problem of Pain. Also useful are two essays Lewis wrote on similar themes: 1. Learning in Wartime and 2. On Living in an Atomic Age (see first quote below).

WHAT LEWIS SAID THAT’S RELATED (or closest to it):

“If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (any microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”
from On Living in an Atomic Age (in Present Concerns)

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“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.”
from Letters of C.S. Lewis (to Father Peter Bide on 4/29/1959)

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“The idea that our sorrow is part of the world’s sorrow is, in certain moods, moving enough: the mere fact that lots of other people have had toothache does not make toothache less painful.”
from Psycho-Analysis and Literary Criticism (in Selected Literary Essays)

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“One is given strength to bear what happens to one, but not the one hundred and one different things that might happen.” (Emphasis by Lewis)
from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3 (to Mary Willis Shelburne on 3/8/1956) 

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“I could well believe that it is God’s intention, since we have refused milder remedies, to compel us into unity, by persecution even and hardship. Satan is without doubt nothing else than a hammer in the hand of a benevolent and severe God. For all, either willingly or unwillingly, do the will of God: Judas and Satan as tools or instruments, John and Peter as sons.”
from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2 (to Don Giovanni Calabria on 9/20/1947)

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“I’ve met so many innocent sufferers who seem to be gladly offering their pain to God in Christ as part of the Atonement, so patient, so meek, even so at peace, and so unselfish that we can hardly doubt they are being, as St. Paul says, “made perfect by suffering.”
from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3 (to Belle Allen on 11/1/1954) 

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)

Posted 3/31/2020

Now Available!