C. S. Lewis Quotes About Sleep

• 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.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Religious, Freedom

  "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

• A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Plato, Lying

• Many things, such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly - are done worst when we try hardest to do them.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Insomnia, Trying

  C. S. Lewis (2013). “Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature”, p.137, Cambridge University Press

• Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.

  C. S. Lewis

  Mistake, Sleep, Tyrants

  "A Reply to Professor Haldane (1946)". "Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1966.

• Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Names, Voice

• I#pray because the need flows out of me all the time-walking and sleeping. It does not change #‎ God - it changes me.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Doe, Needs

• Something of God... flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Nature

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.102, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.

  C. S. Lewis

  Jesus, Morning, Zoos

  C. S. Lewis (1966). “Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life”, p.247, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly; while you are making them you cannot see them. Good people know about both bad and evil; bad people do not know about either.

  C. S. Lewis

  Motivational, Mistake, Sleep

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.120, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.

  C. S. Lewis

  Heart, Sleep, Dragons

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.107, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Certainly, Lu. Whatever you like,' said Peter unexpectedly. This was encouraging, but as Peter instantly rolled round and went to sleep again it wasn't much use.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Use, Peter

  C.S.Lewis (2016). “The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian”, p.103, ENRICH CULTURE GROUP LIMITED

• Fancy sleeping on air. I wonder if anyone's done it before. I don't suppose they have. Oh, bother—-Scrubb probably has!

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Air, Done

  C.S.Lewis (2016). “The Chronicles of Narnia Vol IV: The Silver Chair”, p.21, ENRICH CULTURE GROUP LIMITED

• A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is alright. This is common sense really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not well you are sleeping.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Men, Thinking

• This is where men, even the trustiest, fail us. Their heart is never so wholly given to any matter but that some trifle of a meal, or a drink, or a sleep, or a joke, or a girl, may come in between them and it, and then (even if you are a queen) you'll get no more good out of them until they've had their way.

  C. S. Lewis

  Girl, Queens, Heart

• The worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. And when you wake up you have to get up because the ground is so hard you are uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for breakfast and you have had nothing but apples for supper the night before.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sleep, Night, Doors

  C.S.Lewis (2016). “The Chronicles of Narnia Vol II: Prince Caspian”, p.20, ENRICH CULTURE GROUP LIMITED

• A great many people (not you) do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.

  C. S. Lewis

  Song, Sleep, Thinking

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