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
The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of time--for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The future is temporary and ever-changing, unlike the past which is fixed and the present that is illuminated by possibilities.
C. S. Lewis reflects on the nature of time, distinguishing between the future, present, and past. He describes the future as fleeting and uncertain, contrasting it with the past, which is immutable, and the present, which is vibrant and filled with potential. This highlights the importance of living in the moment and recognizing that our perception of time is dynamic.
Themes
FutureTimePresentPastPhilosophyChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of planning for the future.
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes →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
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon this point.
Abraham LincolnRead
In some way impossible to ascertain, after so many years of absense, Jose Arcadio was still an autumnal child, terribly sad and solitary.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change: Jem and I were burdened with the guilt of contributing to the aberrations of nature, thereby causing unhappiness to our neighbors and discomfort to ourselves.
Harper LeeRead
As the eldest son of an Alabama sharecropper family, I was constantly troubled by a collage of North American southern behaviors and notions in reference to the inhumanity of people. There were questions that I did not know how to ask but could, in my young, unsophisticated way, articulate a series of answers.
John Henrik ClarkeRead
Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of peopleMaybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time. Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things.
Jandy NelsonRead