Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations (CCSLQ)

Updated: 6/25/2020

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The following serves as an OVERVIEW for a series begun in late August, 2015. Updates were initially done weekly, then monthly, and now because my book (The Misquotable C.S. Lewis) based on this material was released on March 16, 2018 (purchase from the publisher or preview it on Google Books), I’m going back to posting weekly (except for holiday weekends) to feature material not yet shared (but the content in my book is expanded).  You might also want to join my group on Facebook where you can easily ask questions about quotations not covered here.  

As you might guess from the title, the focus is on exploring quotations attributed to C.S. Lewis that may or may not be from him. While I’ve written and spoken on the topic previously, this page is the “go to” place to find out what quotes I’ve examined (or plan to). But, again, my book contains updated/revised information. 

Below are the links to the actual articles. If there is no link yet, then that means the article hasn’t been released yet, even though my book does explore it.

Also note that because a quote is listed below, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is NOT from Lewis. As the result of my investigations I’ve come up with three types, or categories that are explained in my INTRODUCTION to Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations article. So, be sure to follow this link to understand the categories I’ve created.

Additionally, I’ve written three articles that summarized the most visited posts.  The first piece features the Top 5 Questionable Lewis Quotes for 2015 (from among the first sixteen articles I wrote up to that point). Then, in late 2016 I did a Top 10 Questionable Lewis Quotes from twenty-nine posts that had been published. Then, in late 2017, I was asked to write an online article for Christianity Today; it was released on Nov. 22, 2017.

Finally, if you are of an audio person, then consider listening to a series of podcasts I created that deal with this topic, as well as a few misconceptions about Lewis. 

 

The Questionable Quotes

Select whichever quotation you will like to learn more about why it is questionable. In some cases it is either close to what Lewis actually said, or the context makes it *questionable* to share because it could be misunderstood.

 

ADDITIONAL QUOTES EXAMINED IN MY BOOK:

  1. “Reality looked at steadily is unbearable.”
  2. “The Grotesque is a ridge from which one can descend into very different valleys.”
  3. “A little lie is like a little pregnancy-it doesn’t take long before everyone knows.”
  4. “C.S. Lewis remarked that the goal of the Left is to ‘make pornography public and religion private.’”
  5. “A woman’s heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her.”
  6. “Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.”
  7. “On the back of Satan’s neck is a nail scarred footprint.”
  8. “There are, by best estimates, currently approximately eight billion people in the world. Each person is unique; each person has a purpose; each person extraordinary. We always must watch ourselves when we begin to believe someone is ordinary.”
  9. “We are what we believe we are.”
  10. “Everything that is not eternal is worthless in eternity.”
  11. “We meet no ordinary people in our lives.”
  12. “Reason is the natural order of truth, but imagination is the organ of meaning.”
  13. “The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of the earth – the very thing the whole story has been about.”
  14. “I want God. Not my idea of God.”
  15. “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”
  16. “Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Law Giver. ”
  17. “What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.”

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3 thoughts on “Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations (CCSLQ)

  1. u wrote that u discuss this quote in ur book. i do not have access to the book. did CS LEWIS say or write:

    “Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.”

    1. The earliest online reference to this expression with Lewis’s name associated with it is 2002, where i found it in Google Groups. Several books cite Lewis, with the 2009 title The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Daily Quote Book being the earliest. however, in the 2012 book, Smiles Poems. . . Thoughts to Ponder, no author is listed for this quote and so i consider the expression to be from an unknown author.

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