Mere Quotes

• Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Christian

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• God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Happiness, Religious

  C.S. Lewis (1960). “Mere Christianity”

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• You must make your choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

  C. S. Lewis

  Teacher, Jesus, Easter

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.289, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd be either a lunatic on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

  C. S. Lewis

  Teacher, Jesus, Son

  76 Copy quote

• Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.

  C. S. Lewis

  Atheist, Dark, Simple

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage but He is building a palace. He intends to come & live in it Himself

  C. S. Lewis

  Cottages, Littles, Palaces

  C.S. Lewis (1960). “Mere Christianity”

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• If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Eye, Dark

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.38, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Wisdom, Humility

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.114, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• 

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

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Christian, Thinking

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.64, HarperCollins UK

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• And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, War, Ambition

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.109, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.

  C. S. Lewis

  Cutting, Religion, Sitting

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.53, HarperCollins UK

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• It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible Gods and Goddesses. To remember that the dullest, and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.

  C. S. Lewis

  One Day, Would Be, Serious Things

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.197, Simon and Schuster

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• Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.

  Rick Warren

  Humble, Humility, Thinking

  Rick Warren (2012). “The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?”, p.134, Zondervan

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• Love as distinct from "being in love" is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit.

  C. S. Lewis

  Being In Love, Love Is, Feelings

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.197, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• As long as you are proud, you cannot know God.

  C. S. Lewis

  Humility, Sin Of Pride, Long

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.114, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There are no ordinary people.. it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.

  C. S. Lewis

  Gnats, People, Religion

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Mere Christianity”, p.12, HarperCollins UK

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• My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Christian, Atheist

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.

  C. S. Lewis

  Men, Ideas, Atheism

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.37, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• 'Being in love' first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Being In Love, Promise

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.197, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go.

  C. S. Lewis

  Being In Love, Love Is, Feelings

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.97, HarperCollins UK

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• If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Life, Spiritual

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.21, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

  C. S. Lewis

  Art, Truth, Creativity

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Virtue and Vice: A Dictionary of the Good Life”, p.12, Harper Collins

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• Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

  Jane Smiley

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Book

  Jane Smiley (2008). “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.14, Anchor

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• The best hiding spots are not the most hidden; they're merely the least searched.

  Chris Pavone

  Visibility, Hiding, Spots

  Chris Pavone (2012). “The Expats: A Novel”, p.114, Broadway Books

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• Until a vegan or vegetarian enters the room, people don't see themselves as meat-eaters. They are merely 'eaters', and it is we vegans who have made them aware of what they are doing. Often this is discomforting.

  Carol J. Adams

  Food, People, Feminist

  21 Copy quote