"It is no disparagement to the garden..." - Quote by C S Lewis
It is no disparagement to the garden to say it will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own fruit trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns...It will remain a garden only if someone does all these things to it...If you want to see the difference between [the garden's] contribution and the gardener's, put the commonest weed it grows side by side with his hoes rakes, shears, and a packet of weed killer; you have put beauty, energy, and fecundity beside dead, steril things. Just so, our 'decency and common sense' show grey and deathlike beside the geniality of love.
More by C S Lewis
“In justifying cruelty to animals we put ourselves also on the animal level. We choose the jungle and must abide by our choice.”
“The harder you tried not to think, the more you thought.”
“Did I hate him, then? Indeed, I believe so. A love like that can grow to be nine-tenths hatred and still call itself love.”
More on Love
“I devote myself to what I love the most, and for this very reason I hesitate to designate it with lofty words: I do not want to risk believing that it is a sublime compulsion, a law, which I obey: I love what I love the most too much to wish to appear to it as one compelled.”
“For without you, I swear, the town Has become like a prison to me. Distraction and the mountain And the desert, all I desire.”
“Then we'll find a way to work through all this together because I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
More on Effort
“If you lie down in a village square hoping to capture a sea gull, you could stay there your whole life without succeeding. But a hundred miles from shore it's different. Sea gulls have a highly developed instinct for self-preservation on land but at sea they're very cocky.”
“Every man who would do anything well, must come to it from a higher ground.”
“That inspiration comes, does not depend on me. The only thing I can do is make sure it catches me working.”