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.
C. S. LewisRead
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True fulfillment and joy require active engagement with the sources of those feelings.
C. S. Lewis emphasizes that to attain meaningful experiences like joy, power, peace, and eternal life, one must actively pursue and immerse themselves in the entities that provide these qualities. Just as physical warmth or wetness can only be experienced by proximity to their sources, spiritual and emotional fulfillment demands similar effort and commitment rather than expecting it to be handed out effortlessly.
Themes
JoyPeacePowerLifeEngagement
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As C. S. Lewis wisely stated, true joy requires us to get close to the things that bring us happiness.'
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes →I 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.
C. S. LewisRead
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. LewisRead
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
C. S. LewisRead
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
C. S. LewisRead
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
C. S. LewisRead
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Don't you know how much I hero-worshiped you when I was a kid? You were Marie Curie crossed with Emily Bronte crossed with Joan of Arc to me when I was ten. And when i told you that, you said my cultural references were the sign of a colonized mind.
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If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
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None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
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Sometimes you don’t just want to risk making mistakes; you actually want to make them - if only to give you something clear and detailed to fix.
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There never was a great soul that did not have some divine inspiration.
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