You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you bel… - C. S. Lewis

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Engraved portrait of C. S. Lewis, facing left

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?

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About C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was an Irish author, scholar of medieval literature, and Christian apologist. He is best known for his essays on Christianity and for the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia.

Biography information from Wikiquote · Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, John S. Murray (Public domain / CC0)

Also Known As

Pen Names: N. W. Clerk Clive Hamilton
Birth Name: Clive Staples Lewis
Alternative Names: CS Lewis C.S. Lewis Clive Lewis Nat Whilk

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Additional quotes by C. S. Lewis

But the man is a humbug — a vulgar, shallow, self-satisfied mind, absolutely inaccessible to the complexities and delicacies of the real world. He has the journalist's air of being a specialist in everything, of taking in all points of view and being always on the side of the angels: he merely annoys a reader who has the least experience of knowing things, of what knowing is like. There is not two pence worth of real thought or real nobility in him. But he isn't dull.

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