Get ready to be inspired by some of C.S. Lewis’ most thought-provoking quotes. As one of the most influential authors of all time, Lewis’ wisdom transcends time and is sure to resonate with you on a deep, personal level.
C.S. Lewis, the renowned British writer, and theologian, has left an indelible mark on literature and philosophy. Known for his works such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Mere Christianity,” Lewis’s quotes are filled with profound insights and timeless wisdom to ignite your soul and lift your heart.
Here, we have curated 60 of the most inspiring quotes from C.S. Lewis, each offering a glimpse into his brilliant mind and compassionate heart.
Best C.S. Lewis Quotes
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
“Courage, dear heart.”
“We are what we believe we are.”
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
“To love at all is to be vulnerable.”
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
Inspirational C.S. Lewis Quotes
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’”
“Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”
“We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.”
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.”
“It is not your business to succeed, but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God.”
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”
“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
Thought-Provoking C.S. Lewis Quotes
“You can make anything by writing.”
“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”
“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only – and that is to support the ultimate career.”
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
“Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”
“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.”
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”
“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
Reflective C.S. Lewis Quotes
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
“Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.”
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”
“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, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'”
“We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
Encouraging C.S. Lewis Quotes
“Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.”
“God can’t give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”
“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.”
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
“The pain now is part of the happiness then. That’s the deal.”
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
“We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”
“You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.”
“The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.”
“We are all fallen creatures and all very hard to live with.”
“It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence.”
“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.”
“The truth is, of course, that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one’s life.”
“We do not want merely to see beauty… we want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life.”
“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.”
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that.”
“The very man who has argued you down will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said.”
“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ.”
C.S. Lewis’s quotes offer timeless wisdom and deep insights into the human condition, faith, and the journey of life. These powerful quotes reflect his profound understanding and ability to articulate complex truths in simple yet powerful ways.
Let these quotes inspire you to reflect, grow, and embrace the wisdom of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.