CS Lewis was probably the most quotable Christian of the past century. I dare say that every second book in a Christian bookstore has at least one quote from the great thinker.
I have been looking for an excuse to publish some of my favorite CS Lewis quotes. Well today, February 9th, just happens to be the 68th anniversary of the publication of Lewis’s classic The Screwtape Letters. Lewis once said that Screwtape was his least enjoyable book to write. If you’ve read it you’ll not be surprised.
I actually had a difficult time finding quotes from Screwtape – I have just one, perhaps you can think of others – but it was easy to find pearls from his other works. Here are 12 of my favorites.
1. “100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased.”
~ The Weight of Glory (1949)
2. “Badness is only spoiled goodness.”
~ The Case for Christianity (1943)
3. “Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.”
~ The World’s Last Night (1960)
4. “Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won’t last forever. We must take it or leave it.”
~ The Case for Christianity (1943)
5. “Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.”
~ The Problem of Pain (1940)
6. “No good work is done anywhere without aid from the Father of Lights.”
~ Reflections on the Psalms (1958)
7. “The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.”
~ Surprised by Joy (1955)
8. “All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
~ Mere Christianity (1952)
9. “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.”
~ Mere Christianity (1952)
10. “Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.”
~ Reflections on the Psalms (1958)
11. “Looking for God – or Heaven – by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters…”
~ ‘The Seeing Eye’, Christian Reflections (1967: 150)
12. “Some people probably think of the Resurrection as a desperate last moment expedient to save the Hero from a situation which had got out of the Author’s control.”
~ Miracles (1947)
Given the occasion, here is a bonus quote from The Screwtape Letters …
“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
~ The Screwtape Letters (1942)
