I just copied a few of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes here, some with my thoughts on why I agree with or like them.

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. "

I like this quote, because I think how true it could be. It takes courage to show mercy in the face of vengeance; courage to turn the other cheek; courage to show kindness in the face of evil; courage to smile in the face of hardship. Lewis is right in saying it's not just a virtue, but the expression of every virtue in the face of utmost brutality.


"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one."

I'm writing in pink for Miri, hahaha! (Miri's favorite color, to my utmost chagrin is pink) This sounds just like us when we first met at school: "Hi, do you teach here? (my hair was short and very curly, something older women in Korea do, so Miri assumed I was older!)." me: "No, I'm new here, I'm a freshman." Miri: "Oh, me too. I'm an MK and my Dad is a minister" me: "Me too!" Us: "Will you be my best friend?" (smile, laugh!). (Not the full extent of the story, but our own take on it).

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... it has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. "

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."

I like how Lewis says here that friendship is a substance of survival. While friendship may not be required to get through life, it sure makes a heck of a difference to survive life. For me, a life of solitude and loneliness would be insurmountable. I wouldn't survive. But, by the blessing of my friends over the years, I find life has a lot of beauty and joy to offer, and those little hardships we may meet along the way are survivable because of the love and affection of others.


"This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."

"Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."

Vulnerability means a freedom in a way (to me at least), to express yourself in the fullest extent, while opening yourself to receive others in their fullest extent. It doesn't always work out, and you do become possibly broken. But you are better off for taking the chance, and you learn more about yourself every time you do. Gosh, I could never lock my heart away in a casket......but I guess I could do more to wear it less on my sleeve than I do now. I never want my heart or love to be irredeemable....how awful would that be!?

"Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good."

Hello world? Hello U.S.A? Hello everyone? Evils are never necessary! They are a means to an end, and somehow never quite come out right....aka...never good!

"No one ever told me grief felt so much like fear."

Yes.

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."

My God how I've learned, more times that I care to remember!

"Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere."

"Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time."

I love this quote....it just makes sense.

"The real Oxford is a close corporation of jolly, untidy, lazy, good-for-nothing humorous old men, who have been electing their own successors ever since the world began and who intend to go on with it. They'll squeeze under the Revolution or leap over it when the time comes, don't you worry."

I needed to have an Oxford quote in for good measure....and I found it quite funny and interestingly accurate.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."