QuoteProject
The best swordsman in the world may be disarmed by a trick that's new to him.
C. S. Lewis
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Even the most skilled individuals can be caught off guard by unfamiliar challenges.

This quote by C. S. Lewis illustrates the idea that expertise does not guarantee invincibility. It highlights the importance of adaptability and awareness of new strategies or situations, suggesting that even the most adept can fail if they encounter something unexpected.

Themes

AdaptabilityExpertiseChallengeNewnessWisdom

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about career challenges, one might say, 'Remember, the best swordsman in the world may be disarmed by a trick that's new to him.'

More from C. S. Lewis

A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
I enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
C. S. LewisRead
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. LewisRead
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
C. S. LewisRead
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
C. S. LewisRead
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
C. S. LewisRead

Similar quotes

George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis.
Quentin CrispRead
I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way.
A. A. MilneRead
I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.
Tallulah BankheadRead
How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think than in all other time. I'd like to be an old man to really know. I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.
Ernest HemingwayRead
One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.
Thomas SowellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.