C. S. Lewis Quotes about Philosophy

What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.

What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.

C. S. Lewis

Inspirational, Forgiveness, Philosophy

To be ignorant and simple now-not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground-would be to throw down our weapons and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Simple, Intellectual

What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Kind, Learning Experience

C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Needs, Reason

C. S. Lewis (1984). “The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis”, p.226, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

You cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it.

C. S. Lewis

Wisdom, Philosophy, Goes On

C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.230, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C. S. Lewis

Art, Philosophy, Men

C. S. Lewis (1971). “The Four Loves”, p.83, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

[M]an has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

C. S. Lewis

Strong, Philosophy, Thinking

The value given to the testimony of any feeling must depend on our whole philosophy, not our whole philosophy on a feeling.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Feelings, Given

C. S. Lewis (2014). “Christian Reflections”, p.50, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

No good poem, however confessional it may be, is just a self-expression. Who on earth would claim that the pearl expresses the oyster?

C. S. Lewis

Art, Philosophy, Self

Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Mistake, Farewell

Nature does not teach. A true philosophy may sometimes validate an experience of nature; an experience of nature cannot validate a philosophy. Nature will not verify any theological or metaphysical proposition (or not in the manner we are now considering); she will help to show what it means.

C. S. Lewis

Philosophy, Mean, Doe

C. S. Lewis (1971). “The Four Loves”, p.32, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt