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.
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)
Source: 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: theringofwords
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: the-wretched-harmony
My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?… Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then my argument against God collapsed too—for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
C.S. Lewis (via secretlifeofmyself)
Source: secretlifeofmyself
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
Aslan sings the world of Narnia into existence.
Original illustration from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by Pauline Baynes.
Source: cathyheart
Source: love-abound
Source: mellifluousbookshelf
No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally - and often far more - worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.
C.S. LEWIS (via the-wretched-harmony)
(via the-wretched-harmony)
Source: speckandpebble
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