Quotes

Faith and Christianity

"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."
— The Weight of Glory

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."
— Mere Christianity

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."
— Letters to Malcolm

Love and Relationships

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken."
— The Four Loves

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."
— The Four Loves

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
— The Four Loves

Life and Human Nature

"You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
— Attributed

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are."
— The Magician’s Nephew

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
— Attributed

Imagination and Creativity

"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning."
— Mere Christianity

"When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, 'Look!' The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. We would be at Jerusalem."
— The Weight of Glory

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."
— On Stories

Suffering and Joy

"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
— The Problem of Pain

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."
— Letters to an American Lady

"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."
— Letters to Malcolm

Courage and Strength

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
— The Screwtape Letters

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
— Attributed

"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage."
— On Stories

Each category links back to timeless wisdom from one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.