(Source: ochanachos)
“It has only just begun to dawn on us that in our own language alone, not to speak of its many companions, the past history of humanity is spread out in an imperishable map, just as the history of the mineral earth lies embedded in the layers of its outer crust. But there is this difference between the record of the rocks and the secrets which are hidden in language: whereas the former can only give us knowledge of outward dead things-such as forgotten seas and the bodily shapes of prehistoric animals-language has preserved for us the inner living history of man’s soul. It reveals the evolution of consciousness.” — Owen Barfield (via commonplacerfollowshisbrush)
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right… If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (via s0l4m3)
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” — ― J.R.R. Tolkien (via literarybadasses)
“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”
(J.R.R. Tolkien, Letters, no. 172)
“The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a world where souls can meet.” — C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, “Human Pain” (via theringofwords)
“If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give [us] free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, “The Shocking Alternative” (via theringofwords)
(Source: juleahkaliski, via the-wretched-harmony)
(Source: lovingyouandhimtoo)
(Source: iamsho)
(Source: ihaveheardthemermaids)
“Be confident, small immortals. You are not the only voice that all things utter, nor is there eternal silence in the places where you cannot come.” — Perelandra (1943)
(Source: cslewisquotes)
“If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them.” — C.S. Lewis (via the-wretched-harmony)
(Source: gordo-tron)
“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still, there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” — —J.R.R. TOLKIEN (via the-wretched-harmony)
(Source: elecktrisante, via the-wretched-harmony)