Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
C. S. Lewis Quotes
AnthropomorphismNarrativeRealityTransformationConsequence Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare.
PowerControlSocietyDomination What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.
FailureSuccessPerseveranceAchievement Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.
FaithChristianityPerspective I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
LanguageRelativityDefinition 'Good English' is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another.
FaithEffectivenessPerspective If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
FaithSurrenderAdversitySpiritual Growth Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us... While what we call 'our own life' remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make 'our own life' less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?
LiteratureEnrichmentRealityLifeInspiration Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.
GodHappinessPeaceFaith God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
PrayerAvoidanceEffortHuman Interaction It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.
Objective ValueAuthorityJusticeFreedom A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
EducationGrowthNurturingPotential The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
WritingImpulseExpressionPassion Writing is like a 'lust,' or like 'scratching when you itch.' Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.
InstinctsInner ConflictSelf-ControlDiscernment Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.
Self-DescriptionPhysical Appearance I'm tall, fat, rather bald, red-faced, double-chinned, black-haired, have a deep voice, and wear glasses for reading.
EthicsMoralityJusticeConsistencyPower If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.
ChoiceDecision MakingLife's Journey We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.
JoyPleasureHappinessAuthenticity I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.
TimeFutureUniversalityInevitability The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
LoveInsightResilience This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.
ClarityCommunicationPrecisionLanguage Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.
BoredomVulnerabilityMidlife The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.
ClarityIntegrityCommitment Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.
TransformationGrowthChangePotential It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
Gender RelationsConflictMarriageReconciliation There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.
ImaginationPatienceCreativityAction 'The Lion' all began with a picture of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself, 'Let's try to make a story about it.'
HumanitySpiritualityDualityExistence Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.
FutureOptimismMoving On Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
ContextAppropriatenessBehaviorSocial Norms Solemnity is proper in church, but things that are proper in church are not necessarily proper outside, and vice versa. For example, I can say a prayer while washing my teeth, but that does not mean I should wash my teeth in church.
AspirationAmbitionSuccessGoal Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
GloryPowerWorshipSovereignty A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
FaithApologeticsDoubt Nothing is more dangerous to one's own faith than the work of an apologist. No doctrine of that faith seems to me so spectral, so unreal as one that I have just successfully defended in a public debate.
DesireSpiritualityPurposeTranscendence If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
MiraclesTruthPerception Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.
HistoryGood IntentionsHuman EndeavorImperfection History isn't just the story of bad people doing bad things. It's quite as much a story of people trying to do good things. But somehow, something goes wrong.
MeaningPerceptionExistence If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
ProgressCorrectionWisdomAdaptabilitySelf-Awareness We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
EmotionJoyAuthenticityOpposites Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony.