C. S. Lewis Philosophical Quotes — Page 31

Writer, Scholar

Philosophical

“Wisdom: The first error is that of the southern people, and it consists in holding that these eastern and western places are real places. Give no quarter to that thought, whether it threatens you with fear, or tempts you with hopes. For this is Superstition and all who believe it will come in the end to the swamps, to the south and the jungles, to the far south. Part of the same error is to think that the Landlord is a real man.”

Men Believe Real

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C. S. Lewis

Writer, Scholar

Philosophical

“The very power of [textbook writers] depends on the fact that they are dealing with a boy: a boy who thinks he is ‘doing’ his ‘English prep’ and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.”

Thinking Years Boys

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Philosophical

“Earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy.”

Pleasure

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Philosophical

“A myth is a lie that conveys a truth.”

Lying Truth

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Philosophical

“But do you really mean, Sir," said Peter, "that there could be other worlds-all over the place, just round the corner-like that?" "Nothing is more probable," said the Profesor, taking off his spectacles and beginning to polish them, while he muttered to himself, "I wonder what they do teach them at these schools.”

Mean School Other Worlds

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Philosophical

“Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ʿreligionʾ mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.”

Mean Feelings Behavior

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Philosophical

“Watchin' and listenin' is the thing at present; not talking.”

Talking Not Talking

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Philosophical

“I felt in my bones that this universe does not explain itself.”

Doe Bones

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Philosophical

“Meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words ' God can'.”

Two Combination Acquire

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Philosophical

“We must perpetually try to distinguish, however closely they get entwined by the subtle nature of the facts and by the secret importunity of our passions, those attitudes in a writer which we can honestly and confidently condemn as real evils, and those qualities in his writing which simply annoy and offend us as men of taste.”

Real Passion Attitude

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Philosophical

“Men propound mathematical theorems in besieged cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on the scaffold, discuss a new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature.”

Men Wall Hair

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Philosophical

“Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistake of our own period. And that means the old books.”

Mean Book Mistake

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C. S. Lewis — Philosophical Quotes

C. S. Lewis Quotes