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
If we did not bring to the examinations of our instincts a knowledge of their comparative dignity we could never learn it from them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding our instincts requires awareness of their value and importance.
C. S. Lewis emphasizes the necessity of analyzing our instincts with a framework of knowledge regarding their significance. Without a comparative understanding of what is valuable and dignified in our instincts, self-discovery and true learning from them would be impossible.
Themes
InstinctsKnowledgeDignitySelf-DiscoveryLearning
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy lecture on moral reasoning, one might say this quote to stress the importance of self-reflection.
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes βI 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
If you wish to shine like day, burn up the night of self-existence. Dissolve in the Being who is everything.
RumiRead
History overflows time. Love overflows the allowance of the world. All the vessels overflow, and no end or limit stays put. Every shakable thing has got to be shaken. In a sense, nothing that was ever lost in Port William ever has been replaced. In another sense, nothing is ever lost, and we are compacted together forever, even by our failures, our regrets, and our longings.
Wendell BerryRead
Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.
Karl MarxRead
Think of it : zillions and zillions of organisms running around, each under the hypnotic spell of a single truth, all these truths identical, and all logically incompatible with one another : 'My hereditary material is the most important material on earth; its survival justifies your frustration, pain, even death'. And you are one of those organisms, living your life in the thrall of a logical absurdity.
Robert WrightRead
So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.
Pema ChodronRead
It appears to me that those who rely simply on the weight of authority to prove any assertion, without searching out the arguments to support it, act absurdly. I wish to question freely and to answer freely without any sort of adulation. That well becomes any who are sincere in the search for truth.
Vincenzo GalileiRead