posted 8/8/2020; revised 8/15/2020

INTRODUCTION

This is the 4th in a series devoted to clarifying whether or not C.S. Lewis wrote something you’ve seen quoted in a book and/or shared on social media. Each post examines one quote that I became aware of examining since my book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis came out in early 2018 and another quote that is mentioned in that work.

Last time I told you about a quote that included the words, “Jesus is” and reminded you about one with “Be weird, be random” in it.

The new quote examined usually originates from a question asked by members of my Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations Facebook group. Finally, if you want to see the online versions of quotations I’ve previously explored, then you can see a list at this central online location.

4.1 – “For broken dreams…”

“For broken dreams, the cure is dream again; and deeper.”

I only found a few memes of this quotation, however, I’d guess (because of the message) its popularity might increase. This express falls under my “Not Quite Lewis” category (see THIS article for an explanation of the categories), but there are also a few minor errors in it (so it would qualify for my “Almost Lewis” category, too). Meaning, the words ARE from Lewis, however, without the context, one cannot really understand what Lewis originally meant. This is especially true because it comes from a poem Lewis wrote when he was not a Christian.

As for the errors…some of the memes do not have all of them. They mostly have to do with punctuation. To demonstrate, let’s consider the context issue as well by sharing the source. Below is the passage as found in the book Dymer. If you are not familiar with this work, it is important to note that it is a narrative poem. Even if you are not familiar with this type of poetry, you’d not be surprised to learn that it is a poem that tells a story (usually through the voices of a narrator and characters). Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and The Charge of the Light Brigade are all examples of narrative poems.

This passage from Dymer is just 10 words and is less than 1/100th of the entire poem (which has over 15,000 words). The poem has nine cantos and the passage in question is from Canto 6.24 and is as follows:

“And she—she was no dream. It would be waste
To seek her there, the living in that den
Of lies.” The Master smiled. “You are in haste!
For broken dreams the cure is, Dream again
And deeper. If the waking world, and men,
And nature marred your dream—so much the worse
For a crude world beneath its primal curse.”

Finally, in The A-Z of C.S. Lewis, Colin Duriez’s entry on Dymer begins with stating it is “an anti-totalitarian poem.” So, you might want to think twice about sharing this quote just because you like what you think it means.

4.2 – “Humility Is Not…”

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

If I had a dime for every meme that was shared with this quote then I could probably retire tomorrow! While the expression is very clear and is also close to what C.S. Lewis wrote, the fact remains he did NOT write it. Lewis wrote some excellent thoughts on humility in Mere Christianity and in The Screwtape Letters, however, the words in this quotation are not found in any of his writings. They ARE found in The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

Find out more by checking out what I wrote back in 2015 about this saying, and/or read about it in my 2018 book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis.