Inspirational Quotes by C.S. Lewis

“Yet again, if the fixed nature of matter prevents it from being always, and in all its dispositions, equally agreeable even to a single soul, much less is it possible for the matter of the universe at any moment to be distributed so that it is equally convenient and pleasurable to each member of a society. If a man traveling in one direction is having a journey down hill, a man going in the opposite direction must be going up hill. If even a pebble lies where I want it to lie, it cannot, except by a coincidence, be where you want it to lie. And this is very far from being an evil: on the contrary, it furnishes occasion for all those acts of courtesy, respect, and unselfishness by which love and good humor and modesty express themselves. But it certainly leaves the way open to a great evil, that of competition and hostility.”

“It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman;”

“فالصلاح التام" الكامل لا يمكن أن يجادل بشأن النتيجة التي يجب الوصول إليها، و "الحكمة الكاملة" لا يمكن أن تجادل بشأن أفضل الوسائل المناسبة لتحقيقها. تتمثل حرية الله في حقيقة أنه لا يوجد سبب آخر غير الله نفسه يُنتج أفعاله و لا توجد عقبة خارجية تعوقها – و أن صلاحه الشخصي هو الجذر الذي منه تنمو جميع أفعاله، و قدرته الكلية الشخصية هي المناخ الذي تًزهر و تنمو فيه جميع هذه الأعمال”

“Because she is in God’s hands.’ But if so, she was in God’s hands all the time, and I have seen what they did to her here. Do they suddenly become gentler to us the moment we are out of the body? And if so, why? If God’s goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it.”

“الإرادة البشرية تصبح خلاقة حقاً و تصبح ملكاً لنا بالفعل عندما تكون بالكامل ملكاً لله، و هذا واحد من المعاني الكثيرة التي يكون بها الإنسان الذي يضيّع نفسه يجدها. هذا الفعل العظيم تتم المبادرة به لأجلنا، و يُصنع نيابة عنا، كمثال نحتذي به، و يتم نقله بصورة لا تُصدق إلى جميع المؤمنين، بواسطة المسيح على الجلجثة. هنــــاك تصل درجة الموت المقبول إلى أقصى حدود لما يمكن تخيله و ربما تتخطاها”

“What chokes every prayer and every hope is the memory of all the prayers H. and I offered and all the false hopes we had. Not hopes raised merely by our own wishful thinking, hopes encouraged, even forced upon us, by false diagnoses, by X-ray photographs, by strange remissions, by one temporary recovery that might have ranked as a miracle. Step by step we were 'led up the garden path'. Time after time, when He seemed most gracious He was really preparing the next torture.”

“فالمسيحية تعلمنا أن المهمة المريعة، من ناحية ما قد تم إنجازها لأجلنا، أن هناك يداً خبيرة تمسك بأيدينا إذ نحاول أن نتتبع الأحرف الصعبة، و أن المخطوطة التي لدينا تحتاج فقط أن تكون "صورة منسوخة" Copy، و ليس أصلاً Original”

“Stop it,” spluttered Eustace, “go away. Put that thing away. It’s not safe. Stop it, I say. I’ll tell Caspian. I’ll have you muzzled and tied up.” “Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!” cheeped the Mouse. “Draw and fight or I’ll beat you black and blue with the flat.” “I haven’t got one,” said Eustace. “I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in fighting.” “Do I understand,” said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment and speaking very sternly, “that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?” “I don’t know what you mean,” said Eustace, nursing his hand. “If you don’t know how to take a joke I shan’t bother my head about you.” “Then take that,” said Reepicheep, “and that--to teach you manners--and the respect due to a knight--and a Mouse--and a Mouse’s tail--” and at each word he gave Eustace a blow with the side of his rapier, which was thin, fine, dwarf-tempered steel and as supple and effective as a birch rod.”

“We do not know what happens after death, but I suspect that all of us still have a great deal to learn, and that learning is not necessarily easy.”

“La ilusión de la creatura de ser autosuficiente debe, por su propio bien, ser destrozada; y Dios la destroza mediante problemas o miedo a los problemas en la tierra, mediante el crudo temor a las llamas eternas, “sin pensar en la disminución de su gloria”.”

“Perhaps your Majesty would like to taste it first,” said Drinian to Caspian. The King took the bucket in both hands, raised it to his lips, sipped, then drank deeply and raised his head. His face was changed. Not only his eyes but everything about him seemed to be brighter. “Yes,” he said, “it is sweet. That’s real water, that. I’m not sure that it isn’t going to kill me. But it is the death I would have chosen--if I’d known about it till now.”

“the ultimate purpose of God’s love for all of us human creatures is love.”

“في أيامنا هذه نحن نقصد بصلاح الله حصرياً تقريباً، محبته، و قد نكون على حق في ذلك. في هذا السياق، معظمنا يعني بالحب، اللطف و الحنان، أو الرغبة في رؤية الآخرين أكثر سعادة من النفس، ليس أن نراهم سعداء بهذه الطريقة أو تلك، بل فقط سعداء. فالذي يمكن أن يرضينا حقاً هو إله يقول على أي شيء نحب أن نفعله، "ماذا يهم، طالما أنهم راضون و قانعون؟" في الحقيقة نحن لا نريد "أباً" في السماء قدر ما نريد "جَداً" في السماء، شيخاً عجوزاً مسناً، الذي كما يقولون، "يحب أن يرى الشباب يستمتعون". و الذي خطته لأجل الكون ببساطة أن يُقال فعلياً في نهاية كل يوم، "لقد إستمتع الجميع بوقت طيب" أنا لا أزعم أنني إستثناء لذلك: كنت أرغب كثيراً في أن أعيش في عالم تحكمه مثل هذه الأفكار الخاطئة. لكن حيث أنه من الواضح بشدة أنني لا أستطيع ذلك، و حيث أن لدي سبب لكي أعتقد، رغم ذلك، أن الله محبة، فإني أستنتج أن مفهومي عن الحب يحتاج إلى تصحيح إن الحب هو شيء أكثر صرامة و قوة و روعة من مجرد اللطف. نعم هناك لطف في الحب: لكن الحب واللطف ليا متزامنين و متماثلين”

“did,” said Aslan. “Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?”

“grief still feels like fear. Perhaps, more strictly, like suspense. Or like waiting; just hanging about waiting for something to happen. It gives life a permanently provisional feeling. It doesn’t seem worth starting anything. I can’t settle down. I yawn, I fidget, I smoke too much. Up till this I always had too little time. Now there is nothing but time. Almost pure time, empty successiveness.”

“حقيقة أن الله يمكنه أن يصنع خيراً مركباً من الشر البسيط لا تُبرر – رغم أنها بالرحمة يمكن أن تخلّص – أولئك الذين يصنعون الشر البسيط. لأنك بالتأكيد ستحقق غرض الله، بأية طريقة تتصرف بها، لكن الإختلاف يكمن بالنسبة لك فيما إذا كنت تخدمه مثل يهوذا أم مثل يوحنا”

“I can’t understand this. There is not a breath of wind. The sail hangs dead. The sea is as flat as a pond. And yet we drive on as fast as if there were a gale behind us.” “I’ve been thinking that, too,” said Caspian. “We must be caught in some strong current.” “H’m,” said Edmund. “That’s not so nice if the World really has an edge and we’re getting near it.” “You mean,” said Caspian, “that we might be just--well, poured over it?” “Yes, yes,” cried Reepicheep, clapping his paws together. “That’s how I’ve always imagined it--the World like a great round table and the waters of all the oceans endlessly pouring over the edge. The ship will tip up--stand on her head--for one moment we shall see over the edge--and then, down, down, the rush, the speed--” “And what do you think will be waiting for us at the bottom, eh?” said Drinian. “Aslan’s country, perhaps,” said the Mouse, its eyes shining. “Or perhaps there isn’t any bottom. Perhaps it goes down for ever and ever. But whatever it is, won’t it be worth anything just to have looked for one moment beyond the edge of the world.” “But look here,” said Eustace, “this is all rot. The world’s round--I mean, round like a ball, not like a table.” “ world is,” said Edmund. “But is this?” “Do you mean to say,” asked Caspian, “that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you’ve never told me! It’s really too bad of you. Because we have fairy-tales in which there are round worlds and I always loved them. I never believed there were any real ones. But I’ve always wished there were and I’ve always longed to live in one. Oh, I’d give anything--I wonder why you can get into our world and we never get into yours? If only I had the chance! It must be exciting to live on a thing like a ball. Have you ever been to the parts where people walk about upside-down?” Edmund shook his head. “And it isn’t like that,” he added. “There’s nothing particularly exciting about a round world when you’re there.”

“For in grief nothing stays put. One keeps emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats.”

“Doch diejenigen, die mich auffordern, an diesem Weltbild [Evolutionstheorie] zu glauben, wollen mich auch glauben machen, dass die Vernunft lediglich ein unvorhergesehenes und unbeabsichtigtes Nebenprodukt unbelebter Materie in einem Stadium ihrer endlosen und ziellosen Bewegung ist. Ist das nicht ein glatter Widerspruch?”

“We had better not assume that the vicarious delights, in any of these kinds, are always substitutes for actual delights. It is not only the plain and unloved women who read the love stories; all who read success stories are not themselves failures”