posted 9/19/2020
INTRODUCTION
This is the 8th article 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. It began as a weekly series but is now done about every two weeks.
Each post examines two quotations. The first quote is something I became aware of since my book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis came out in early 2018. The second quote is a reminder of one that is mentioned in that work.
The new quote examined usually originates from a question asked by a member of my Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations Facebook group. 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.
Last time I told you about a quote that included the words, “forgive the inexcusable” and another with “Integrity is” in it.
8.1 – “only lazy people work hard”
“…Eugene Peterson subversively quotes C.S. Lewis as saying “only lazy people work hard.”
Sometimes people summarize an author and then another person doesn’t realize it was a summary and not a direct quote. That’s the case for this “not Lewis” quotation. Many years ago Eugene Peterson did make a comment about the writings of C.S. Lewis, however, he did not claim to quote him directly. That is, he never put quotations around the statement. Fortunately, I’ve not been able to find any memes sharing the statement. However, a member of my Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations Facebook group asked about it recently and I hope by writing about it here that it will prevent it from becoming another meme that won’t go away!
Back in 1989 (reprinted in 1993), in The Contemplative Pastor, Peterson stated the following in chapter two: “It was a favorite theme of C. S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard.” As stated above, Peterson is in no way claiming those are the exact words of Lewis. However, a blog from 2014 (as reflected above), mistakingly suggests Lewis wrote the words. Yet, it is clear from what Peterson wrote, he’s saying Lewis wrote about it more than one time. Here’s the paragraph where Peterson mentions this:
It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.
So, were are the places that Lewis speaks to this? As noted by Heath Cross in a 2013 blog post, there is only one clear place in Mere Christianity where he wrote about it. In book 4, chapter 8 (“Is Christianity Hard or Easy?”) we find these words:
Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run.
8.2 – “Isn’t it funny…”
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”