C. S. Lewis
1898–1963
6 genuine quotes, each found in the text, and 6 wrongly credited to Lewis.
Belfast-born scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge, author of the Narnia books and of widely read works of Christian apologetics. Many of his most quoted lines are his own, in essays and talks, but some belong to characters: in The Screwtape Letters the voice is a senior devil advising his nephew, so its maxims are meant inside out. The internet also credits him with a good number of lines he never wrote.
EndpaperAn AI‑generated pattern made for this page, in the manner of Penguin paperback design (1935–1972).
Genuine Lewis quotes
- Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...”
The Four Loves (1960), Chapter IV, “Friendship”.
- Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.
Mere Christianity (1952), Book III, chapter 10, ‘Hope’.
- Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
The Screwtape Letters (1942), letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing, said by Screwtape.
- God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
The Problem of Pain (1940), Chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’, p. 81 in the 1946 printing.
- No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
A Grief Observed (1961), Part I, opening sentence.
- To love at all is to be vulnerable.
The Four Loves (1960), Chapter VI, ‘Charity’.
Quotes wrongly credited to Lewis
- We read to know that we are not alone.
Misattributed. William Nicholson wrote it for Shadowlands. Nicholson himself says the film line was never said by C. S. Lewis.
- Experience that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
Misattributed. This rewords dialogue by William Nicholson in Shadowlands. It is neither an exact film transcript nor a documented sentence by C. S. Lewis.
- Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.
Misattributed. Not a sentence by Lewis. It is attributed to Reepicheep in the 2010 film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, whose screenplay has three credited writers.
- Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Misattributed. Not a Lewis quotation. Rick Warren uses it, but closely related printed forms predate his 2002 book; the original coiner is not established.
- You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
Misattributed. The wording is documented in Les Brown’s 1992 book; no primary source in C. S. Lewis has been established.
- You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.
Misattributed. Not Lewis’s words. A related formulation was credited to George MacDonald in 1892, but authorship of the exact modern wording and its route to Lewis remain unresolved.
The works we hold
Quotes are looked up word for word in these texts. The number is how many genuine quotes here come from each.
| Work | Year | Genuine quotes |
|---|---|---|
| The Problem of Pain | 1940 | 1 |
| The Screwtape Letters | 1942 | 1 |
| Mere Christianity | 1952 | 1 |
| The Four Loves | 1960 | 2 |
| A Grief Observed | 1961 | 1 |