Screwtape Letters Quotes

“The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of time—for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.” ― C. S. Lewis

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.” ― C. S. Lewis

“If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Courtship is the time for sowing those seeds which grow up ten years later into domestic hatred.” ― C. S. Lewis

“When two humans have lived together for many years, it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that.” ― C. S. Lewis

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand.” ― C. S. Lewis

“When they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” ― C. S. Lewis

“She’s the sort of woman who lives for others – you can tell the others by their hunted expression.” ― C. S. Lewis

“The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.” ― C. S. Lewis

“He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Provided that any of those neighbors sing out of tune or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Devils are depicted with bats’ wings and good angels with birds’ wings, not because anyone holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats.” ― C. S. Lewis

“The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighborhood of the Holy.” ― C. S. Lewis

 “Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that “suits” him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” ― C. S. Lewis

“A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts… Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” ― C. S. Lewis

“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out…” ― C. S. Lewis