God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
Genuine
Yes. In The Problem of Pain (1940), Chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’, p. 81 in the 1946 printing.
Checked against C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (first published October 1940), chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’; London: Geoffrey Bles, The Centenary Press, February 1946, sixteenth printing, as transcribed in Project Gutenberg Canada ebook 1185, p. 81 (page markers retained in the transcription), in a full-text transcription.
- Work
- The Problem of Pain, 1940
- Where
- Chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’, p. 81 in the 1946 printing
- Source
- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (first published October 1940), chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’; London: Geoffrey Bles, The Centenary Press, February 1946, sixteenth printing, as transcribed in Project Gutenberg Canada ebook 1185, p. 81 (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
In his discussion of human suffering, Lewis asks how pain can interrupt moral complacency. He contrasts pleasure, conscience and suffering as increasingly difficult signals to disregard. He then recognizes that suffering can provoke rebellion rather than repentance; in the next chapter he distinguishes the evil of suffering from any good that may result from it.
What it means
Pain can force a person to confront a reality or a moral failure that ordinary satisfactions allowed them to ignore.
Often misread
The argument is not that suffering is good in itself or that causing another person’s pain is justified. Lewis makes that distinction explicitly in chapter VII.
Topics
Related quotes
- All addictions are a low-level search for God. (paraphrase) Carl Gustav Jung
- It is sweet, when the winds stir the sea, to watch another’s great trouble from the land. Lucretius
- Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. Naval Ravikant
- To love at all is to be vulnerable.
- What a man thinks of himself becomes his fate. (paraphrase) Henry David Thoreau
Sources
Cite it
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (1940), Chapter VI, ‘Human Pain’, p. 81 in the 1946 printing. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/god-whispers-to-us-in-our-pleasures/ (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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