For a boy goes to a Public School precisely to be made a normal, sensible boy—a good mixer—to be taken out of himself; and eccentricity is severely penalized.

It seems, then, said Tirian, smiling himself, that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places. Yes, said the Lord Digory. Its inside is bigger than its outside.

Good characters in fiction are the very devil. Not only because most authors have too little material to make them of, but because we as readers have a strong subconscious wish to find them incredible.

If you give such a creature two blows with a whip, there are, indeed, two pains: but there is no co-ordinating self which can recognise that 'I have had two pains'.

No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit...

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.