Letters to an American Lady Quotes

“If we really believe what we say we believe- if we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a "wandering to find home", why should we not look forward to the arrival. There are, aren't there, only three things we can do about death: to desire it, to fear it, or to ignore it. The third alternative, which is the one the modern world calls "healthy" is surely the most uneasy and precarious of all.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“Nightmares don't last.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“By praying really hard, you can make it so that your worst enemy feels dumb.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“I have a notion that, apart from actual pain, men and women are quite diversely afflicted by illness. To a woman one of the great evils about it is that she can’t do things. To a man (or anyway a man like me) the great consolation is the reflection “Well, anyway, no one can now demand that I should do anything”.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e. at the expense of our love for Him) but in another way we love everything too little.

No person, animal, flower, or even pebble, has ever been loved too much—i.e. more than every one of God’s works deserves.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“Lord Dunsany is a glorious writer in prose: try The Charwoman’s Shadow.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“[...] men are more likely to hand over to others what they ought to do themselves, and women more likely to do themselves what others wish they would leave alone. Hence both sexes must be told “Mind your own business”, but in two different senses!”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often themselves quite mistaken as to what their motives are...”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“Psychological diagnoses even about human patients seem to me pretty phoney. They must be even phonier when applied to animals. You can’t put a cat on a couch and make it tell you its dreams or produce words by “free association”. Also—I have a great respect for cats—they are very shrewd people and would probably see through the analyst a good deal better than he’d see through them.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“There, by the way, is a sentence ending with a preposition. The silly “rule” against it was invented by Dryden. I think he disliked it only because you can’t do it in either French or Latin which he thought more “polite” languages than English.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“Apropos of horrid little fat baby “cherubs”, did I mention that Heb. Kherub is from the same root as Gryphon? That shows what they’re really like!”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“In his autobiography he says that one essential of the happy life is “that a man would have almost no mail and never dread the postman’s knock.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“May God’s grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think- much less, speak- of their sins. One’s own are a much more profitable theme! And if, on consideration, one can find no faults on one’s own faults, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion…”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one’s heart. Easier said than done. And the contents become perfume only when it is broken. While they are safe inside they are more like sewage.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

“How right you are to see that anger (even when directed against oneself) “worketh not the righteousness of God”. One must never be either content with, or impatient with, oneself. My old confessor (now dead) used to impress on me the need for the 3 Patiences: patience with God, with my neighbour, with oneself.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady