Mere Christianity

by C.S. Lewis

all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start.

that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’,

Charity—giving to the poor—is an essential part of Christian morality:

Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices.

We see only the results which a man’s choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it.

It is wonderful what you can do when you have to.

I find ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.’ There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven.

For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.