Great Divorce Quotes

• No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

  C. S. Lewis

  Joy, Missing, Soul

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.142, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I gave in, and admitted that God was God.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Atheist, Literature

  "Unseen CS Lewis letter defines his notion of joy" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. December 9, 2014.

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• It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

  C. S. Lewis

  Strong, Sex, Children

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Weight of Glory”, p.26, Harper Collins

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• There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.

  C. S. Lewis

  Self, Two, People

  "The Problem of Pain". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1940.

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• There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Religion, Looks

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.119, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains.

  C. S. Lewis

  Real, Heaven, Remains

  17 Copy quote

• "I wish I had never been born," she said.
  "What are we born for?"
  "For infinite happiness," said the Spirit.
  "You can step out into it at any moment..."

  C. S. Lewis

  Wish, Steps, Spirit

  "The Great Divorce". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1945.

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• I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell; and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Heaven, Earth

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.134, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• This moment contains all moments.

  C. S. Lewis

  Moments

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.50, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it, or else, for ever and ever, the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves.

  C. S. Lewis

  Joy, Able, Misery

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.141, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporary suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say 'Let me but have this and I'll take the consequences': little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Dream, Religious

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• You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Religious, God Love

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.190, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• No people find each other more absurd than lovers

  C. S. Lewis

  People, Lovers, Absurd

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• That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal sufferring, "No future bliss can make up for it" not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.

  C. S. Lewis

  Agony, Knowing, Heaven

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• It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

  C. S. Lewis

  Strong, Desire, Mud Puddles

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Weight of Glory”, p.26, Harper Collins

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• There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself.

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Men, Care

  "The Great Divorce". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1945.

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• If we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.

  C. S. Lewis

  Heaven, Able, Hell

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Inspiration, Errors

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.134, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There is no other day. All days are present now. This moment contains all moments.

  C. S. Lewis

  Moments

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• I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back til you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power' --or else not.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Errors, Evil

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• Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?

  C. S. Lewis

  Reality, Feet, Shadow

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• Hell is a state of mind -- ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind -- is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly.

  C. S. Lewis

  Real, Heaven, Mind

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.185, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.

  James Jeans

  Life, Carpe Diem, Anticipation

  Sir James Hopwood Jeans (1928). “Nature”

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• I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Rescue, Right Road

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.134, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Religious, Lust

  63 Copy quote