“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’ – could set up on their own as if they had created themselves – be their own masters – invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.”
- “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor – that is the only way out of our ‘hole’… It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”
- “Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side.”
- “Christ never meant we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only “as harmless as doves”, but also “as wise as serpents”… He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job.”
- “One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up.”
- “When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reasons, it is quite possible that in God’s eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the V. C. [Victoria’s Cross].”
- “There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her or her own members.”
- “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. 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.”
- “Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.”
- “Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”
- “And He and you are two things of such a kind that, if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble – delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life… To get near it, even for a second, is like a drink of cold water to a man in the desert.”
- “If you think you are not conceited, you are very conceited indeed.”
- “Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will: that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.”
- “Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will: that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.”
- “When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
- “A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself.”
- “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”
- “If this chapter means nothing to you, if it seems to be trying to answer questions you never asked, drop it at once. Do not bother about it at all.”
- “Or you may realise that, instead of saying your prayers, you ought to be downstairs writing a letter, or helping your wife wash up. Well, go and do it.’
- “To shrink back from that plan is not humility, it is laziness and cowardice.’
Thank you for the quotes!
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