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C. S. Lewis Quotes about Reading

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In Science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.

In Science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Miracle, Christianity
C. S. Lewis (1996). “Miracles: A Preliminary Study”, Touchstone Books

I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Men
C. S. Lewis (2009). “Collected Letters Volume Two: Books, Broadcasts and War, 1931–1949”, p.77, HarperCollins UK

You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Long
"On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature".

The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph.

C. S. Lewis
Drama, Reading, Doctrine
C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.71, Simon and Schuster

Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us.

C. S. Lewis
Children, Book, Reading
C. S. Lewis (2002). “On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature”, p.58, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Read and Re-Read--"Re-reading, we always find a new book.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, New Books

As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not conciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Eye, Thinking
C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.

C. S. Lewis
Atheist, Reading, Men
C. S. Lewis (1966). “Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Looking for God-or Heaven-by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters.

C. S. Lewis
Faith, Reading, Character
C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.73, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Age

It is important early in life to acquire the power of reading sense wherever you happen to be.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Important, Happens

But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Eye, Night
C. S. Lewis (2012). “An Experiment in Criticism”, p.141, Cambridge University Press

In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere — "Bibles laid open, millions of surprises," as Herbert says, "fine nets and stratagems." God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.

C. S. Lewis
Atheist, Reading, Men

We read to know we are not alone.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Lovely, Knows

A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest." He also said: "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally - and often far more - worth reading at the age of 50 and beyond.

C. S. Lewis
Children, Book, Reading
Source: www.biblegateway.com

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

C. S. Lewis
Inspirational, Book, Reading
C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.103, Simon and Schuster

Ideally, we should like to define a good book as one which 'permits, invites, or compels' good reading

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Permit
C. S. Lewis (2012). “An Experiment in Criticism”, p.113, Cambridge University Press

We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties.

C. S. Lewis
Real, Reading, Lust
C. S. Lewis (2002). “Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories”, p.30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Two, Eating
C. S. Lewis (1966). “Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life”, p.152, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.

C. S. Lewis
Girl, Book, Reading
C. S. Lewis (2013). “The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen”, p.106, Harper Collins

Many a man, brought up in the glib profession of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading Astronomy to realize for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.

C. S. Lewis
Religious, Reading, Reality
C. S. Lewis (1996). “Miracles: A Preliminary Study”, Touchstone Books

The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Sea Breeze

It certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.

C. S. Lewis
Reading, Childhood, Stories
"On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature".

...the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him..." - C.S. Lewis: Weight of Glory

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Beer

If one has to choose between reading the new books and reading the old, one must choose the old: not because they are necessarily better but because they contain precisely those truths of which our own age is neglectful.

C. S. Lewis
Book, Reading, Age

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