Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
Genuine
Yes. In a letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing, said by Screwtape. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Lewis’s own voice.
Checked against C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (first published February 1942), Letter XXIX; London: Geoffrey Bles, The Centenary Press, September 1944, fourteenth printing, as transcribed in Project Gutenberg Canada ebook 1179, p. 148 (page markers retained in the transcription), in a full-text transcription.
- Work
- The Screwtape Letters, 1942
- Where
- Letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing
- Source
- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (first published February 1942), Letter XXIX; London: Geoffrey Bles, The Centenary Press, September 1944, fourteenth printing, as transcribed in Project Gutenberg Canada ebook 1179, p. 148 (page markers retained in the transcription)
- Checked
- In a full-text transcription
Researched by AI. Entry updated 22 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
With the human patient about to face German bombing, the senior devil Screwtape advises Wormwood about fear, hatred and cowardice. He admits a difficulty for the tempters: danger can expose moral failure and awaken repentance. This remark concedes why God permits real tests, after which Screwtape tries to turn the resulting shame into despair instead.
What it means
A virtue that disappears as soon as it becomes dangerous is only conditional; courage is what allows honesty, mercy and the other virtues to survive a real test.
Often misread
The sentence belongs to a fictional devil, not to Lewis speaking directly to the reader. Here it is a truth the devil grudgingly acknowledges while planning how to undermine it, not an instruction to adopt Screwtape’s aims.
Topics
Related quotes
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear. Mark Twain
- Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. (paraphrase) André Gide
- What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal. Friedrich Nietzsche
- The language of friendship is not words but meanings. Henry David Thoreau
- or, if we trust Aristotle, no great genius has ever been without a touch of insanity. Seneca the Younger
Sources
Cite it
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942), Letter XXIX, p. 148 in the 1944 printing. Spoken by Screwtape. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/courage-is-the-form-of-every-virtue-at-the-testing-point/ (22 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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