Philip Zaleski

Charles Williams loved his son with reservations, complaining that "a child is a guest of a somewhat inconsistent temperament, rather difficult to get rid of, almost pushing; a poor relation rather than a pleasant kind.

He loved his family, his friends, his writing, his painting; he knew their flaws, but they neither surprised nor embittered him.

Shame and suffering, as St. Bernard says, are the two ladder-uprights which are set up to heaven, and between those two uprights are the rungs of all virtues fixed, by which one climbs to the joy of heaven_ In these two things, in which is all penance, rejoice and be glad, for in return for these, twofold blisses are prepared: in return for shame honour; in return for suffering, delight and rest without end.

She had responded to the loss of her husband, to poverty, to disease, and to family cruelty with boldness and ingenuity, by opening herself to others, especially to her children and her Church, pouring into these precious vessels her knowledge, hope, and devotion.

It's not easy being a missionary, even with the key to the cosmos in your hand.

Lewis spoke for almost every member when he said, "There is no sound I like better than adult male laughter.

A Christian atmosphere is no protection against preening egos.

He would henceforth worship and defend the very reason for Joy, the Almighty Maker of Joy.

The teacher-student relationship evaporated, replaced by a rich and lively exchange of equals.

Fidelity in marriage requires self-will and self-denial.

C.S. Lewis had come to demand of his nightly prayers a "realization," "a certain vividness of the imagination and the affectations" _ a sure recipe for sleeplessness and misery.

A philosophy that cannot be lived is no philosophy at all.

A Christian's duty, Lewis believed, is not simply to tolerate "X" but to make life with "X" an occasion to work on one's own character flaws.

This is one of the difficulties and pleasures of studying the Inklings; Christians all, they offer, along with the expected 20th-century psychological explanations for behavior, unexpected spiritual ones.

Obedience appears to me more and more the whole business of life, the only road to love and peace.

The Inklings were comrades who have been touched by war, who view life through the lens of war, yet who look for hope and found it, in fellowship, where so many other modern writers and intellectuals saw only broken narratives, disfigurement, and despair.

Everyone and everything needed to be raised to its highest level _ the teacher must become a mage, the husband a knight errant, the labor a hero in a sacred drama _ intensified, rarefied, baptized in the turbulent waters of restlessness, curiosity, and ardor.

Christian myth, reveals the truth that "the Christian was (and is) still like his forefathers a mortal hemmed into a hostile world.