From The Chronicles of Narnia to Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis’ legacy as an author and theologian is far-reaching and profound. His words transcend denominations and are applicable to all Christian life. From a variety of Lewis’ works, these 27 Christian quotes are worth storing away in your heart.
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27 Christian Quotes from C.S. Lewis
“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.”
“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.”
“Joy is the serious business of heaven.”
“We must show our Christian colors if we are to be true to Jesus Christ.”
“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
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“A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you'd been the only man in the world.”
“I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.”
“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?”
“A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.”
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“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
“[God] will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of heaven as a shortcut to the nearest chemist’s shop.”
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“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
“Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
“The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God’s love for us does not.”
“I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”
“Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
What’s your favorite C.S. Lewis quote? Let us know in the comments. And be sure to subscribe to Pure Flix Insider for more great lifestyle, faith and entertainment content.
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