The Screwtape Letters

Why didn't I read this book sooner!? The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis has been on my list of books to read for years! It finally made its way to the top of my list and I just finished reading it. Wow. What an excellent book. One of my very favorite books is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, but The Screwtape Letters gives it a run for its money. Here are a few (of the many) quotes that I loved:

Page 54 “Do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God]. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Page 59 “The Enemy [God] wants him [man], in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbors talents – or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall.”

Page 104 “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. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”

My new book is Uncle Tom's Cabin....another book, like The Screwtape Letters, that I'm embarrassed I've never read before!