A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
I wonder if people who asked for God to intervene in our world, really know what they are asking. Will they want to be there when God really does intervene?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the awareness of those who seek divine intervention in the world.
C. S. Lewis's quote suggests a profound contemplation on the implications of asking for God's intervention. It highlights the responsibility and potential consequences that come with such a request, prompting individuals to consider whether they truly understand the nature and extent of divine involvement in human affairs. The quote emphasizes a cautious approach to invoking higher powers, as it raises questions about human readiness to face the possible outcomes of such actions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about faith and prayer, this quote could be used to illustrate the complexities of asking for divine help.
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes βI enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
Similar quotes
The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.
It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So deadly. Left alone, they lit and warmed. Let run rampant, they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate. Embryonic bonfires, each bearing a seed of destruction so potent it could tumble cities and dash kings to their knees.
No, it is not only our fate but our business to lose innocence, and once we have lost that, it is futile to attempt a picnic in Eden.
Being able to live without having to be defined by your skin color is the hallmark of privilege.
Each of us lives within the universe - the prison - of his own brain. Projecting from it are millions of fragile sensory nerve fibers, in groups uniquely adapted to sample the energetic states of the world around us: heat, light, force, and chemical composition. That is all we ever know of it directly; all else is logical inference.