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C.S. Lewis on fatherhood, character, and how to live

12 sourced quotes from C.S. Lewis, each with the original work, the year, and links to a primary or scholarly source you can check yourself. Selected for what they say to a man raising children.

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”
A Grief Observed, 1961
“According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride... it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads…”
Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 8, 1952
“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud.”
Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 8, 1952
“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”
Surprised by Joy, 1955
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.”
The Four Loves, 1960
“We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them…”
The Four Loves, 1960
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which…”
The Four Loves, 1960
“We feed children in order that they may soon be able to feed themselves; we teach them in order that they may soon not need our teaching. Thus a…”
The Four Loves, chapter "Affection", 1960
“The typical example of Gift-love would be that love which moves a man to work and plan and save for the future well-being of his family which he…”
The Four Loves, chapter "Likings and Loves for the Sub-human", 1960
“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
The Problem of Pain, 1940
“He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the…”
The Screwtape Letters, Letter XXIX, 1942
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to…”
The Weight of Glory (1949), originally delivered as a sermon at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford (1941), 1949

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

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Works quoted here: A Grief Observed, Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 8, Surprised by Joy, The Four Loves, The Four Loves, chapter "Affection", The Four Loves, chapter "Likings and Loves for the Sub-human", The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, Letter XXIX, The Weight of Glory (1949), originally delivered as a sermon at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford (1941).