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
Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acting with love toward others can lead to genuine feelings of love.
C. S. Lewis suggests that the act of behaving lovingly towards others, even if we don’t initially feel it, can lead to the development of genuine love. By focusing on our actions and treating others with kindness and compassion, we uncover a profound truth: that love can be cultivated through our behavior, ultimately transforming our feelings and relationships.
Themes
LoveNeighborActionsFeelingsRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about community service to emphasize the importance of acting with kindness.
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 you wish to be loved, be modest; if you wish to be admired, be proud; if you wish both, combine external modesty with internal pride.
Will DurantRead
Later, her first intense, serious love affair, yes then she'd lost something more tangible, if undefinable: her heart? her independence? her control of, definition of, self? That first true loss, the furious bafflement of it. And never again quite so assured, confident.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Alyosha's heart could not bear uncertainty, for the nature of his love was always active. He could not love passively; once he loved, he immediately also began to help.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Amour is the one human activity of any importance in which laughter and pleasure preponderate, if ever so slightly, over misery and pain.
Aldous HuxleyRead
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
William ShakespeareRead
You fell in love with someone because of the tilt of his smile, or because he could make you laugh, or in this case, because he made you believe that you were the only one who could save him.
Jodi PicoultRead