C. S. Lewis Quotes About Universe

• If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Eye, Dark

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.38, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.

  C. S. Lewis

  Atheist, Dark, Simple

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

• There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.

  C. S. Lewis

  Squares, Religion, Atheism

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.168, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the 'first fruits,' the pioneer of life,' He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so.

  C. S. Lewis

  Kings, Life Changing, Men

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.65, Simon and Schuster

• If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it that you don't feel at home there?

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Atheist, Home

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.21, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.

  C. S. Lewis

  Heart, Mean, Acceptance

  "The Weight of Glory". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1949.

• Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

  C. S. Lewis

  Enemy, Looks, Letters

  C. S. LEWIS (1961). “The Screwtape Letters & Screwtape Proposes a Toast”

• These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Law, Ideas

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Mere Christianity”, p.18, HarperCollins UK

• What we have been told is how we men can be drawn into Christ-can become part of that wonderful present which the young Prince of the universe wants to offer to His Father-that present which is Himself and therefore us in Him. It is the only thing we were made for. And there are strange, exciting hints in the Bible that when we are drawn in, a great many other things in Nature will begin to come right. The bad dream will be over: it will be morning.

  C. S. Lewis

  Dream, Morning, Father

  C.S. Lewis (1960). “Mere Christianity”

• My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?

  C. S. Lewis

  God, Christian, Atheist

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

• The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Religious, Self

  C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.141, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

  C. S. Lewis

  Art, Philosophy, Men

  C. S. Lewis (1971). “The Four Loves”, p.83, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven: a senile benevolence who, as they say, "liked to see young people enjoying themselves" and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, "a good time was had by all."

  C. S. Lewis

  Attitude, Father, People

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works”, p.19, Harper Collins

• How could an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger, better, subtler than itself?

  C. S. Lewis

  Dream, Stronger, Idiotic

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963”, p.75, HarperCollins UK

• An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that Fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. [speaking of George MacDonald]

  C. S. Lewis

  Father, Almost Perfect, Roots

• If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings--then we may take it it is worth paying.

  C. S. Lewis

  Real, War, Moving

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.53, HarperCollins UK

• What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.

  C. S. Lewis

  Eye, Numbers, Trying

  C. S. Lewis (1966). “Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life”, p.187, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The rule of the universe is that others can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and one can paddle every canoe except one's own.

  C. S. Lewis

  Life, Can Do, Universe

• The universe rings true whenever you fairly test it.

  C. S. Lewis

  Tests, Fairness, Truthful

• Unless thought is valid we have no reason to believe in the real universe.

  C. S. Lewis

  Atheist, Real, Believe

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.40, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• A universe whose only claim to be believed in rests on the validity of inference must not start telling us the inference is invalid.

  C. S. Lewis

  Atheist, Atheism, Inference

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.40, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Our struggle is--isn't it?--to achieve and retain faith on a lower level. To believe that there is a Listener at all. For as the situation grows more and more desperate, the grisly fears intrude. Are we only talking to ourselves in an empty universe? The silence is often so emphatic. And we have prayed so much already

  C. S. Lewis

  Believe, Struggle, Talking

• Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.

  C. S. Lewis

  Joy, Humanity, Saint

• If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will...then we may take it it is worth paying.

  C. S. Lewis

  War, Thinking, May

• Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts - to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really before you, then your natural inquisitiveness must make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all.

  C. S. Lewis

  Real, Believe, Men

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