Monday, May 23, 2011

The Letters of C.S. Lewis

My mom gave me a book of C.S. Lewis' "Letters to an American Lady" last month for my birthday, and I've been finding them most interesting.  It's been great getting to know the real Jack Lewis, the person behind the literature I love.

Here are a few quotes that stuck out to me.  Enjoy!

His humility and honesty:
June 16, 1953


"One of the things that make it easier to believe in Providence is the fact that in all trains, hotels, restaurants, and other public places I have only once seen a stranger reading a book of mine, tho' my friends encounter this phenomenon fairly often.  Things are really fairly well arranged."


Spiritual depth of insight:
27/xi/53


"Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage
but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon."

May 30th, 1953

"If I were a parson, I should always try to dwell on the faults of the clergy:
being a layman, I think it more wholesome to concentrate on those of the laity.
I am rather sick of the modern assumption that, for all events,
'WE', the people, are never responsible:
it is always our rulers, or ancestors, or parents, or education, or anybody but precious 'US'.
WE are apparently perfect and blameless.  Don't you believe it."

Nov 1st 54

"The allegorical sense of [Mary Magdalene's] great action dawned on me the other day.
The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one's heart.
Easier said than done.  And the contents become perfume only when it is broken.  
While they are safe inside they are more like sewage.  
All very alarming."
And jolly good sense of humour:
March 10/54

"Verily 'He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it,
hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart.'"

21/3/55

"We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have a conscience
but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, 
but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one.
When he sits and stares you out of countenance
he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs,or these humans,
or even as these other cats!"

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