C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters Quotes

The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.

She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.

All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be. This is elementary

For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.

Music. A meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience.

The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of time--for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.

A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.

If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?

The claim to equality, outside of the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior.

I do not expect old heads on young shoulders.

Once you have made the world an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.

He cannot ravish. He can only woo.

As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance.

The master demon Screwtape identifies elitist humanity's tendency toward "an ingrained habit of belittling anything that concerns the great mass of their fellow men.

I believe this not in the sense that it is part of my creed, but in the sense that it is one of my opinions. My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.

Even of his sins the Enemy does not want him to think too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased.

Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied.

Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...

... You must always remember... Whatever their bodies do affects their souls.

The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty...

... Of his sins [Heavenly Father] does not want [man] to think [on them] too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better [Heavenly Father] is pleased.

Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, ...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.

Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,

Courtship is the time for sowing those seeds which grow up ten years later into domestic hatred.

... To be in time means to change.