I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.

Joy is the serious business of heaven. Our merriment must be between people who take each other seriously.

The salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world.

The 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.

To the glistening Eastern sea, I give you Queen Lucy, the Valiant. To the great Western Wood, King Edmund the Just. To the radiant Southern sun, Queen Susan, the Gentle; and to the clear Northern sky I give you King Peter, the Magnificent. Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen. May your wisdom grace us 'til the stars rain down from the heavens.

The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story…by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.

The 'frankness' of people sunk below shame is a very cheap frankness.