ScoutTN Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to experiences not our own. They may be beautiful, terrible, awe-inspiring, exhilarating, pathetic, comic or merely piquant. Literature gives entree to them all. Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom realize the enormous extension of our being that we owe to authors. We realize it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. My own eyes are not enough for me. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee. In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand 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. From An Experiment in Criticism, p. 140-1. Quoted in Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer, p. 399. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Love that - thanks for sharing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staceyobu Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Um. Wow. CS Lewis is full of such great quotes! I may have to tape this to my refrigerator or something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 that's beautiful. TY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.