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
It is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the longing for something can often feel more valuable than the thing itself.
C. S. Lewis highlights the idea that the yearning for an unfulfilled desire can create a sense of importance and fulfillment that surpasses the satisfaction of obtaining the desire itself. This illustrates the complex nature of human desires where the chase or longing can be more profound than the actual achievement or possession, leading us to appreciate the journey rather than just the destination.
Themes
DesireSatisfactionLongingPhilosophyHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about the importance of pursuing dreams.
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 are here among you as seekers of refuge from our present-your future-a time of worldwide famine, exhausted fuel supplies, terminal poverty-the end of the capitalistic experiment. Once we came to understand the simpl...truth that earth's resources were limited, in fact soon to run out, the whole capitalistic illusion fell to pieces. Those of us who spoke this truth were denounced as heretics, as enemies of the prevailing economic faith. Like religious Dissenters of an earlier day.
Thomas PynchonRead
He reached for his pocket, and found there, only reality
Victor HugoRead
Chance makes a plaything of a man's life.
Seneca The YoungerRead
The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them.
Stephen KingRead
Though Gods attributes are equal, yet his mercy is more attractive and pleasing in our eyes than his justice.
Miguel De CervantesRead
Towns are after all excrescences, grey fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.
E. M. ForsterRead