Don't you understand anything? Isn't it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That's how we get things done. Any opposition to the N.I.C.E. is represented as a Left racket in the Right papers and a Right racket in the Left papers. If it's properly done, you get each side outbidding the other in support of us-to refute the enemy slanders. Of course we're non-political. The real power always is.
C. S. LewisA cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to Hell than a prostitute.
C. S. LewisThe real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object.
C. S. LewisThe assumption that things which have been conjured in the past will always be conjured in the guiding principle not of rational but of animal behavior.
C. S. LewisWe are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage.
C. S. LewisAnd He [God] and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble--delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life.
C. S. LewisIs it easy to love God' asks an old author. 'It is easy,' he replies, 'to those who do it.' I have included two Graces under the word Charity. But God can give a third. He can awake in man, towards Himself, a supernatural Appreciative love. This is of all gifts the most to be desired. Here, not in our natural loves, nor even in ethics, lies the true centre of all human and angelic life. With this all things are possible.
C. S. Lewis