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
We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote compares belief in God to a parachute, suggesting that faith is a safety net people rely on in difficult times, but hope to avoid needing.
C. S. Lewis uses this metaphor to convey the idea that many people view their faith in God as a last resort, akin to a parachute relied upon during emergencies. While they acknowledge its importance and potential to provide comfort or salvation, they often wish to live their lives without the pressing necessity to depend on it, indicating a preference for self-sufficiency in everyday life.
Themes
FaithGodEmergencySafetyParachute
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of faith in times of crisis.
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
We should teach general ethics to both men and women, but sexual relationships themselves must not be policed. Sex, like the city streets, would be risk-free only in totalitarian regimes.
Camille PagliaRead
War and culture, those are the two poles of Europe, her heaven and hell, her glory and shame, and they cannot be separated from one another. When one comes to an end, the other will end also and one cannot end without the other. The fact that no war has broken out in Europe for fifty years is connected in some mysterious way with the fact that for fifty years no new Picasso has appeared either.
Milan KunderaRead
There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Passion is what gives sense to our life.
Dalai LamaRead
The Internet causes billions of images to appear on millions of computer monitors around the planet. From this galaxy of sight and sound will the face of Christ emerge and the voice of Christ be heard? For it is only when his face is seen and his voice heard that the world will know the glad tidings of our redemption. This is the purpose of evangelization. And this is what will make the Internet a genuinely human space, for if there is no room for Christ, there is no room for man.
Pope John Paul IiRead
The just is close to the people's heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.
Khalil GibranRead