Inspirational Quotes by C.S. Lewis

“El presente es el punto en el que el tiempo coincide con la eternidad. Nuestra tarea consiste en alejarles de lo eterno y del presente. Con esto en mente, a veces tentamos a un humano (pongamos una viuda o un erudito) a vivir en el pasado. De ahí que casi todos los vicios tengan sus raíces en el futuro. La gratitud mira al pasado y el amor al presente; el miedo, la avaricia, la lujuria y la ambición miran hacia delante.”

“A los hombres no les irrita la mera desgracia, sino la desgracia que consideran una afrenta. Y la sensación de ofensa depende del sentimiento de que una pretensión legítima les ha sido denegada. Por tanto, cuantas más exigencias a la vida puedas lograr que haga el paciente, más a menudo se sentirá ofendido y, en consecuencia, de mal humor.”

“Si, por el contrario, es consciente de que le pueden esperar cosas horribles, y reza para pedir las virtudes necesarias para enfrentarse con tales horrores, y entretanto se ocupa del presente porque en éste, y sólo en éste, residen todos los deberes, toda la gracia, toda la sabiduría y todo el placer, su estado es enormemente indeseable y debe ser atacado al instante.”

“Ningún ser podría alcanzar una “perfecta maldad” opuesta a la perfecta bondad de Dios, ya que, una vez descartado todo lo bueno (inteligencia, voluntad, memoria, energía, y la existencia misma), no quedaría nada de él.”

“Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the ‘Cause’ is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal”

“Debes hacer que establezcan como una ley para toda su vida de casados ese grado de mutuo sacrificio de sí que actualmente mana espontáneo del encantamiento pero que, cuando el encantamiento se desvanezca, no tendrán caridad suficiente para permitirles realizarlos. No verán la trampa, ya que están bajo la doble ceguera de confundir la excitación sexual con la caridad y de pensar que la excitación durará. Una”

“Каквото и да правиш, в душата на пациента ти ще се намери място както за милосърдие, така и за злоба. Най-важното е да насочваш злобата към непосредствено заобикалящите го, към хората, които той среща всеки ден, а да запратиш милосърдието далеч към периферията, към хора, които не познава. Така злобата става съвсем истинска, а добротата – въображаема.”

“Mantén su pensamiento lejos de las obligaciones más elementales, dirigiéndolo hacia las más elevadas y espirituales; sin descubrir ninguno de aquellos rasgos suyos que son evidentes para cualquiera. Que cada uno de ellos tenga algo así como un doble patrón de conducta. Tu paciente debe exigir que todo cuanto dice se tome en sentido literal, y que se juzgue simplemente por las palabras exactas, al mismo tiempo que juzga cuanto dice su madre tras la más minuciosa e hipersensible interpretación del tono, del contexto y de la intención que él sospecha. Y a ella hay que animarla a que haga lo mismo con él. De este modo, ambos pueden salir convencidos, o casi, después de cada discusión, de que son totalmente inocentes. Ya sabes como son estas cosas: “Lo único que hago es preguntarle a qué hora estará lista la cena, y se pone hecha una fiera”. Tendrás la deliciosa situación de un ser humano que dice ciertas cosas con el expreso propósito de ofender y, sin embargo, se queja de que se ofendan.”

“Bells, it may be noted, like ships and kittens, have a way of being female, whatever names they are given.”

“– what does old Donne say? “God knows in what part of the world every grain of every man’s dust lies”

“Come on,' said Peter suddenly to Edmund and Lucy. 'Our time's up.' 'What do you mean?' said Edmund. 'This way,' said Susan, who seemed to know all about it. 'Back into the trees. We've got to change.' 'Change what?' asked Lucy. "Our clothes, of course,' said Susan. 'Nice fools we'd look on the platform of an English station in these.' 'But our other things are at Caspian's castle,' said Edmund. 'No, they're not,' said Peter, still leading the way into the thickest wood. 'They're all here. They were brought down in bundles this morning. It's all arranged.' 'Was that what Aslan was talking to you and Susan about this morning?' asked Lucy. 'Yes - that and other things,' said Peter, his face very solemn. 'I can't tell it to you all. There were things he wanted to say to Su and me because we're not coming back to Narnia.' 'Never?' cried Edmund and Lucy in dismay. 'Oh, you two are,' answered Peter. 'At least, from what he said, I'm pretty sure he means you to get back some day. But not Su and me. He says we're getting too old.' 'Oh, Peter,' said Lucy. 'What awful bad luck. Can you bear it?' 'Well, I think I can,' said Peter. 'It's all rather different from what I thought. You'll understand when it comes to your last time. But, quick, here are our things.”

“All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked”.”

“There were birds singing close to a window; there was real sunlight falling on a panel. That panel needed repainting; but I could have gone down on my knees and kissed its very shabbiness - the precious real, solid thing it was.”

“You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society.”

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human”

“This demand is valuable in various ways. In the first place it diminishes pleasure while increasing desire. The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns. And continued novelty costs money, so that the desire for it spells avarice or unhappiness or both. And again, the more rapacious this desire, the sooner it must eat up all the innocent sources of pleasure and pass on to those the Enemy forbids. Thus”

“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.”

“[T]he many use art and the few receive it. The many behave in this like a man who talks who should listen or gives when he should take. I do not mean by this that the right spectator is passive. His is also an imaginative activity; but an obedient one.”

“our attitude should be that of the sensible citizen in wartime who believes that there are enemy spies in our midst but disbelieves nearly every particular spy story. We must limit ourselves to the general statement that beings in a different, and higher ‘Nature’ which is partially interlocked with ours have, like men, fallen and have tampered with things inside our frontier. The”

“Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects.”