The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them,and what came through them was longing. These thingsβthe beauty, the memory of our own pastβare good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols,breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
More Author Quotes
- Love, while always forgiving of imperfections and mistakes, can never cease to will their removal.
- Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. β¨ 1942 The Screwtape Letters, no.15.
- At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours β¦ βΆ
- Wouldn't he know without being asked?' said Polly. 'I've no doubt he would,' said the Horse (still with his mouth full). 'But I've a sort of an idea he likes to be asked. β¨ C. S. Lewis (2013). The Ch β¦ βΆ
- The Christian life is simply a process of having your natural self changed into a Christ self, and that this process goes on very far inside. One's most private wishes, one's point of view, are the t β¦ βΆ
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