UPDATED (10/20/18) – The Misquotable C.S. Lewis is my book that examines 75 quotations attributed to Lewis that I caution you not to share. Some are falsely attributed to him, others are paraphrases of his words, and a few have context issues. Don’t share a quote attributed to Lewis unless you can confirm he wrote it and the meaning is clear without the context!

The following is a quote I examined that led me to writing The Misquotable C.S. Lewis. I bean calling quotes like this “questionable” because I wanted people to question whether or not Lewis wrote it. This led me to coming up with three main categories, or types of misquotes. You can learn about that in the INTRODUCTION to this series. There is also an “at a glance” page to see what quotations I’ve covered in the online series. Please note that the book has revised entries and provide more details about the expressions examined.  

“I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun. Not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.”

Up until now this series has presented quotations that are NOT from Lewis (with a minor exception, see CCSLQ-5). While there are more that fit this category, I’ve decided to take a break from them and share expressions that are ALMOST from C.S. Lewis. What does this mean? These are sayings that are usually a paraphrase of an actual quote, or it may only be missing some words or has some incorrect words. For more details about my categories see my INTRODUCTION to Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations article.

This leads me to the quotation shared above. What could be wrong with it? While it is a great statement, it is actually a poor paraphrase of what Lewis actually wrote and it contains an incorrect word at the start. Instead of “Christ,” he wrote “Christianity.” Here’s the correct version:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”
from IS THEOLOGY POETRY (available in The Weight of Glory) 

As noted above, this comes from the essay Is Theology Poetry? (best found in The Weight of Glory essay collection). It is also the quotation found on the memorial stone in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London. It was placed there in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of his death.

The next quote examined is:

“No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever made a good omelet.”

Related Articles:

Surprised By Misquotes (2018 Taylor Talk)

Exploring C.S. Lewis Misquotes and Misconceptions (2017 6-part podcast series)

What Lewis NEVER Wrote  (Podcast)

Not Quite Lewis – Podcast Version

Not Quite Lewis – Questionable Lewisian Quotations (Conf. Paper)

Updated 10/20/2018
Originally posted 12/12/2015