Chronicles Of Narnia Book Quotes

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Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.
C.S. Lewis (The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia, #4))
I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been - if you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you - you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing is ever going to happen again.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
this is a book about something
C.S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6))
Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon's lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
The best swordsman in the world may be disarmed by a trick that's new to him.
C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia, Book 4))
Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
The bright side of it is,” said Puddleglum, “that if we break our necks getting down the cliff, then we’re safe from being drowned in the river.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
I discovered that the wisdom of the world, and a great deal of its folly also, is to be found in the pages of books. And
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
I have at last come to the end of the Faerie Queene: and though I say "at last", I almost wish he had lived to write six books more as he had hoped to do — so much have I enjoyed it.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” (The Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not.
C.S. Lewis
Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, despierta. Ama. Piensa. Habla. Sed arboles que caminan. Sed bestias que hablan. Sed aguas divinas.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Premium 7-book Collection)
The censors don't bother with fantasy books, especially old ones. They can't understand them. They think it's all kids' stuff. They'd die if they knew what The Chronicles of Narnia were really about.
G. Willow Wilson
When things go wrong, you’ll find they usually go in getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better.
C.S. Lewis (The Magician’s Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1))
No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
No se puede alcanzar la suprema sabiduria sin sacrificios.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Premium 7-book Collection)
And Aslan was bigger and more beautiful and more brightly golden and more terrible than he had thought. He dared not look into the great eyes.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
Don't you think you're a little old now to be quoting The Chronicles of Narnia?' I ask, raising an eyebrow at him. 'You read Harry Potter,' Will protests. 'Everyone reads Harry Potter,' I exclaim. 'It's an institution. Besides, it's not really a kids book, it's a metaphor for the world at large. It's almost philosophical in its way.
Jennifer Gilby Roberts (The Dr Pepper Prophecies (Parker Sisters #1))
But amid all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn’t there they said nothing about it. For Mr. Beaver had warned them, “He’ll be coming and going,” he had said. “One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down—and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
ONCE THERE WERE FOUR CHILDREN WHOSE NAMES were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
It was a perfect little model of a lamp-post, about three feet high but lengthening, and thickening in proportion, as they watched it; in fact growing just as the trees had grown.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C.S. Lewis.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
would very much like to have followed the first plan: he hated the idea
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
But inside of the tree itself, in the very sap of it, the tree never forgot that other tree in Narnia to which it belonged. Sometimes it would move mysteriously when there was no wind blowing.
C.S. Lewis (The Magician’s Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1))
More than once in the days that followed [Eustace] attempted to write it for them on the sand. But this never succeeded. In the first place Eustace (never having read the right books) had no idea how to tell a story straight.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
P’s and Q’s, if
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Pooh! Grown-ups
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Trumpkin
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
As C.S. Lewis observed in The Silver Chair, one book in the Chronicles of Narnia series: “Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.
John Medina (Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five)
Yes, Aslan,” said both the children. But Polly added, “But we’re not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?” “Not yet, Daughter of Eve,” he said. “Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the warning.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Well, don’t tell me about it, then,” said Eustace. “But who is Aslan? Do you know him?” “Well—he knows me,” said Edmund. “He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, who saved me and saved Narnia. We’ve all seen him. Lucy sees him most often. And it may be Aslan’s country we are sailing to.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
For (Levi) Grossman, no books feel more like home than C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, which provide the template for what he likes to read—and how he wants to write.
Joe Fassler
why should we think twice about punishing Narnia any more than about hanging an idle slave or sending a worn-out horse to be made into dog’s-meat?
C.S. Lewis (The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia Book 3))
Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger." "That is because you are older, little one." "Not because you are?" "I am not. But every year you got, you will find me bigger.
C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspain The Chronicles Of Narnia Book 4)
BOOKS
C.S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles Of Narnia Book 1))
Ugh, take it away,” wailed Eustace. “I hate mice. And I never could bear performing animals. They’re silly and vulgar and—and sentimental.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (The Chronicles of Narnia Book 3))
Even in this world, of course, it is the stupidest children who are the most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are the most grown-up.)
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
tournament
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Goodness gracious me!
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
said Polly humbly. And then, because she hardly knew what to say, and also to turn Digory’s mind to cheerful subjects, she asked: “Is Mr. Ketterley really mad?
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
little
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
I didn’t know. I’m sorry,” said Polly humbly.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
padlocked.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
copse.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
He couldn’t say anything but then he didn’t want to say anything, and he knew he needn’t say anything.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
loquacity.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
there may be two views about humans (meaning no offense to the present company). But there’s no two views about things that look like humans and aren’t.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
skewer
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
frost
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
halcyon
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Chapter Nine Across the Desert
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
I,
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Bastables
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
O—o—o—oh!!
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Aslan," said Lucy, "you are bigger." "That is because you are older, little one," answered he. "Not because you are?" "I am not. Because every year you grow, you will find me bigger.
C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspain The Chronicles Of Narnia Book 4)
Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
What awaited them on this island was going to concern Eustace more than anyone else, but it cannot be told in his words because after September 11 he forgot about keeping his diary for a long time.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (The Chronicles of Narnia Book 3))
But do not be cast down,” said Aslan, still speaking to the Beasts. “Evil will come of that evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself. In the meantime, let us take such order that for many hundred years yet this shall be a merry land in a merry world. And as Adam’s race has done the harm, Adam’s race shall help to heal it. Draw near, you other two.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
she just went to the library to read, to escape into other people's imaginations. Often, she reread books she'd loved as a child, their familiarity a balm--- Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Chronicles of Narnia, and her favorite, The Secret Garden. Sometimes, she would close her eyes and find herself not in bed with Simon, but amongst the tangled plants at Misselthwaite Manor, watching roses nod in the breeze.
Emilia Hart (Weyward)
It was the sort of house that is mentioned in guide books and even in histories; and well it might be, for all manner of stories were told about it, some of them even stranger than the one I am telling you now.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
Ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #2))
Good music excellently played beautifies the world, calling people out of the prison of themselves to something greater and grander. Literature, both writing and reading it, is strategic. How many people have been primed to receive the gospel because they read The Chronicles of Narnia as children? And how much medieval philosophy and classical poetry and fantastic fiction did C. S. Lewis have to read before he was equipped to write those precious books?
Joe Rigney (The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts)
I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill. “Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” “There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Don’t you see?” said Digory. “This is where the bar fell—the bar she tore off the lamp-post at home. It sank into the ground and now it’s coming up as a young lamp-post.” (But not so very young now; it was as tall as Digory while he said this.)
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and Three More))
There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of “Heaven” ridiculous by saying they do not want “to spend eternity playing harps.” The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.
C.S. Lewis (The Complete Works of C. S. Lewis: Fantasy Classics, Science Fiction Novels, Religious Studies, Poetry, Speeches & Autobiography: The Chronicles of Narnia, ... Letters, Mere Christianity, Miracles…)
Alas,” said Aslan, shaking his head. “It will. Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart’s desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak Brian’s Hunt by Gary Paulsen Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis The Call of the Wild by Jack London The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The Giver by Lois Lowry Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Hatchet by Gary Paulsen The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Holes by Louis Sachar The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I Am LeBron James by Grace Norwich I Am Stephen Curry by Jon Fishman Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson LeBron’s Dream Team: How Five Friends Made History by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger The Lightning Thief  (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Number the Stars by Lois Lowry The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The River by Gary Paulsen The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (written by many authors) Star Wars series (written by many authors) The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess (Dork Diaries) by Rachel Renée Russell Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Andrew Clements (The Losers Club)
I was wondering—I mean—could there be some mistake? Because nobody called me and Scrubb, you know. It was we who asked to come here. Scrubb said we were to call to—to Somebody—it was a name I wouldn’t know—and perhaps the Somebody would let us in. And we did, and then we found the door open.” “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Creatures, I give you yourselves,” said the strong, happy voice of Aslan. “I give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I have not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them but do not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so.” “No, Aslan, we won’t, we won’t,” said everyone. But one perky jackdaw added in a loud voice, “No fear!” and everyone else had finished just before he said it so that his words came out quite clear in a dead silence; and perhaps you have found out how awful that can be—say, at a party. The Jackdaw became so embarrassed that it hid its head under its wing as if it were going to sleep. And all the other animals began making various queer noises which are their ways of laughing and which, of course, no one has ever heard in our world. They tried at first to repress it, but Aslan said: “Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Yes, of course you’ll get back to Narnia again someday. Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia. But don’t go trying to use the same route twice. Indeed, don’t try to get there at all. It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it. And don’t talk too much about it even among yourselves. And don’t mention it to anyone else unless you find that they’ve had adventures of the same sort themselves.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and though the moon was shining many of them carried torches which burned with evil-looking red flames and black smoke. But such people! Ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won't describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book--
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1))
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #2))
There’s fifty of us and more here with weapons in our fists.” “Hear him, hear him,” came the chorus. “That’s our Chief. You can depend on what he says. He’s telling you the truth, he is.” “I do not see these fifty warriors,” observed Reepicheep. “That’s right, that’s right,” said the Chief Voice. “You don’t see us. And why not? Because we’re invisible.” “Keep it up, Chief, keep it up,” said the Other Voices. “You’re talking like a book. They couldn’t ask for a better answer than that.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
…But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh Adam's sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good! But I will give him the only gift he is still able to receive.” He bowed his great head rather sadly, and breathed into the Magician's terrified face. “Sleep,” he said. “Sleep and be separated for some few hours from all the torments you have devised for yourself.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Official Coloring Book: Coloring Book for Adults and Kids to Share)
Once I began developing an appreciation for fantasy and imaginative literature like Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, C. S. Lewis’s series The Chronicles of Narnia, and of course J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, I discovered that my appreciation for Revelation has grown and the weight of its images have pressed heavier on my soul. As I have read imaginative literature, my imagination has developed. As my imagination has developed, I have found myself reading Revelation more patiently, allowing the images to emerge in my mind until I feel the full spiritual shock of their intended voltage.
Tony Reinke (Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books)
Something was crawling. Worse still, something was coming out. Edmund or Lucy or you would have recognized it at once, but Eustace had read none of the right books. The thing that came out of the cave was something he had never even imagined--a long lead-colored snout, dull red eyes, no feathers or fur, a long lithe body that trailed on the ground, legs whose elbows went up higher than its back like a spider’s, cruel claws, bat’s wings that made a rasping noise on the stones, yards of tail. And the lines of smoke were coming from its two nostrils. He never said the word Dragon to himself. Nor would it have made things any better if he had.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
But after the children had gone a few steps down the room they came to faces that looked a little different. These were very solemn faces. You felt you would have to mind your P's and Q's, if you ever met living people who looked like that. When they had gone a little further, they found themselves among faces they didn't like: this was about the middle of the room. The faces here looked very strong and proud and happy, but they looked cruel. A little further on they looked crueller. Further on again, they were still cruel but they no longer looked happy. They were even despairing faces: as if the people they belonged to had done dreadful things and also suffered dreadful things.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: (AudioKidz))
Well, then, to put it in a nutshell,” said the Chief Voice, “we’ve been waiting for ever so long for a nice little girl from foreign parts, like it might be you, Missie--that would go upstairs and go to the magic book and find the spell that takes off the invisibleness, and say it. And we all swore that the first strangers as landed on this island (having a nice little girl with them, I mean, for if they hadn’t it’d be another matter) we wouldn’t let them go away alive unless they’d done the needful for us. And that’s why, gentlemen, if your little girl doesn’t come up to scratch, it will be our painful duty to cut all your throats. Merely in the way of business, as you might say, and no offense, I hope.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
(Tania Unsworth) writes of a time when she was a “girl of eleven, with a flashlight under the covers, devouring The Chronicles of Narnia”—when there was a complete immersion in the world of the novel, when one connected with a book’s protagonist and experienced the world through the eyes of the “other” in a powerful, beautiful way. There was an intensity to reading then, a kind of total involvement in story that is hard to reproduce as an adult. I know too much now about tired plots and clichés. I am always comparing one thing to another, recognizing devices, identifying styles. No matter how good or bad I find something, I’m always aware of my response, slightly detached, consciously enjoying or not enjoying.
Tania Unsworth
You could almost feel the trees drinking the water up with their roots. This wood was very much alive. When he tried to describe it afterward Digory always said, “It was a rich place: as rich as plumcake.” The strangest thing was that, almost before he had looked about him, Digory had half forgotten how he had come there. At any rate, he was certainly not thinking about Polly, or Uncle Andrew, or even his Mother. He was not in the least frightened, or excited, or curious. If anyone had asked him “Where did you come from?” he would probably have said, “I’ve always been here.” That was what it felt like—as if one had always been in that place and never been bored although nothing had ever happened. As he said long afterward, “It’s not the sort of place where things happen. The trees go on growing, that’s all.” After
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
wretched. There was a feeble attempt from a few dwarfs (about five) which died away all at once: from several others there were sulky growls. Many said nothing at all. “Don’t they understand?” said Jill impatiently. “What’s wrong with all you Dwarfs? Don’t you hear what the King says? It’s all over. The Ape isn’t going to rule Narnia any longer. Everyone can go back to ordinary life. You can have fun again. Aren’t you glad?” After a pause of nearly a minute a not-very-nice-looking Dwarf with hair and beard as black as soot said: “And who might you be, Missie?” “I’m Jill,” she said. “The same Jill who rescued King Rilian from the enchantment—and this is Eustace who did it too—and we’ve come back from another world after hundreds of years. Aslan sent us.” The Dwarfs all looked at one another with grins; sneering grins,
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning—either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honor) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
And now, for the first time, the Lion was quite silent. He was going to and fro among the animals. And every now and then he would go up to two of them (always two at a time) and touch their noses with his. He would touch two beavers among all the beavers, two leopards among all the leopards, one stag and one deer among all the deer, and leave the rest. Some sorts of animal he passed over altogether. But the pairs which he had touched instantly left their own kinds and followed him. At last he stood still and all the creatures whom he had touched came and stood in a wide circle around him. The others whom he had not touched began to wander away. Their noises faded gradually into the distance. The chosen beasts who remained were now utterly silent, all with their eyes fixed intently upon the Lion. The cat-like ones gave an occasional twitch of the tail but otherwise all were still. For the first time that day there was complete silence, except for the noise of running water. Digory’s heart beat wildly; he knew something very solemn was going to be done. He had not forgotten about his Mother, but he knew jolly well that, even for her, he couldn’t interrupt a thing like this. The Lion, whose eyes never blinked, stared at the animals as hard as if he was going to burn them up with his mere stare. And gradually a change came over them. The smaller ones—the rabbits, moles, and such-like—grew a good deal larger. The very big ones—you noticed it most with the elephants—grew a little smaller. Many animals sat up on their hind legs. Most put their heads on one side as if they were trying very hard to understand. The Lion opened his mouth, but no sound came from it; he was breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children’s bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
There’s fifty of us and more here with weapons in our fists.” “Hear him, hear him,” came the chorus. “That’s our Chief. You can depend on what he says. He’s telling you the truth, he is.” “I do not see these fifty warriors,” observed Reepicheep. “That’s right, that’s right,” said the Chief Voice. “You don’t see us. And why not? Because we’re invisible.” “Keep it up, Chief, keep it up,” said the Other Voices. “You’re talking like a book. They couldn’t ask for a better answer than that.” “Be quiet, Reep,” said Caspian, and then added in a louder voice, “You invisible people, what do you want with us? And what have we done to earn your enmity?” “We want something that little girl can do for us,” said the Chief Voice. (The others explained that this was just what they would have said themselves.) “Little girl!” said Reepicheep. “The lady is a queen.” “We don’t know about queens,” said the Chief Voice. (“No more we do, no more we do,” chimed in the others.) “But we want something she can do.” “What is it?” said Lucy. “And if it is anything against her Majesty’s honor or safety,” added Reepicheep, “you will wonder to see how many we can kill before we die.” “Well,” said the Chief Voice. “It’s a long story. Suppose we all sit down?” The proposal was warmly approved by the other voices but the Narnians remained standing.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
Are you someone enchanted--someone human, I mean?” It nodded violently. And then someone said--people disputed afterward whether Lucy or Edmund said it first--“You’re not--not Eustace by any chance?” And Eustace nodded his terrible dragon head and thumped his tail in the sea and everyone skipped back (some of the sailors with ejaculations I will not put down in writing) to avoid the enormous and boiling tears which flowed from his eyes. Lucy tried hard to console him and even screwed up her courage to kiss the scaly face, and nearly everyone said “Hard luck” and several assured Eustace that they would all stand by him and many said there was sure to be some way of disenchanting him and they’d have him as right as rain in a day or two. And of course they were all very anxious to hear his story, but he couldn’t speak. More than once in the days that followed he attempted to write it for them on the sand. But this never succeeded. In the first place Eustace (never having read the right books) had no idea how to tell a story straight. And for another thing, the muscles and nerves of the dragon-claws that he had to use had never learned to write and were not built for writing anyway. As a result he never got nearly to the end before the tide came in and washed away all the writing except the bits he had already trodden on or accidentally swished out with his tail. And all that anyone had seen would be something like this--the dots are for the bits he had smudged out-- I WNET TO SLEE . . . RGOS AGRONS I MEAN DRANGONS CAVE CAUSE ITWAS DEAD AND AINING SO HAR . . . WOKE UP AND COU . . . GET OFFF MI ARM OH BOTHER . . . It was, however, clear to everyone that Eustace’s character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))
Lucy,” came the call again, neither her father’s voice nor Peter’s. She sat up, trembling with excitement but not with fear. The moon was so bright that the whole forest landscape around her was almost as clear as day, though it looked wilder. Behind her was the fir wood; away to her right the jagged cliff-tops on the far side of the gorge; straight ahead, open grass to where a glade of trees began about a bow-shot away. Lucy looked very hard at the trees of that glade. “Why, I do believe they’re moving,” she said to herself. “They’re walking about.” She got up, her heart beating wildly, and walked toward them. There was certainly a noise in the glade, a noise such as trees make in a high wind, though there was no wind tonight. Yet it was not exactly an ordinary tree-noise either. Lucy felt there was a tune in it, but she could not catch the tune any more than she had been able to catch the words when the trees had so nearly talked to her the night before. But there was, at least, a lilt; she felt her own feet wanting to dance as she got nearer. And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving—moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. (“And I suppose,” thought Lucy, “when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.”) She was almost among them now. The first tree she looked at seemed at first glance to be not a tree at all but a huge man with a shaggy beard and great bushes of hair. She was not frightened: she had seen such things before. But when she looked again he was only a tree, though he was still moving. You couldn’t see whether he had feet or roots, of course, because when trees move they don’t walk on the surface of the earth; they wade in it as we do in water. The same thing happened with every tree she looked at. At one moment they seemed to be the friendly, lovely giant and giantess forms which the tree-people put on when some good magic has called them into full life: next moment they all looked like trees again. But when they looked like trees, it was like strangely human trees, and when they looked like people, it was like strangely branchy and leafy people—and all the time that strange lilting, rustling, cool, merry noise. “They are almost awake, not quite,” said Lucy. She knew she herself was wide awake, wider than anyone usually is.
C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition))
Well, then, to put it in a nutshell,” said the Chief Voice, “we’ve been waiting for ever so long for a nice little girl from foreign parts, like it might be you, Missie--that would go upstairs and go to the magic book and find the spell that takes off the invisibleness, and say it. And we all swore that the first strangers as landed on this island (having a nice little girl with them, I mean, for if they hadn’t it’d be another matter) we wouldn’t let them go away alive unless they’d done the needful for us. And that’s why, gentlemen, if your little girl doesn’t come up to scratch, it will be our painful duty to cut all your throats. Merely in the way of business, as you might say, and no offense, I hope.” “I don’t see all your weapons,” said Reepicheep. “Are they invisible too?” The words were scarcely out of his mouth before they heard a whizzing sound and next moment a spear had stuck, quivering, in one of the trees behind them. “That’s a spear, that is,” said the Chief Voice. “That it is, Chief, that it is,” said the others. “You couldn’t have put it better.” “And it came from my hand,” the Chief Voice continued. “They get visible when they leave us.” “But why do you want me to do this?” asked Lucy. “Why can’t one of your own people? Haven’t you got any girls?” “We dursen’t, we dursen’t,” said all the Voices. “We’re not going upstairs again.” “In other words,” said Caspian, “you are asking this lady to face some danger which you daren’t ask your own sisters and daughters to face!” “That’s right, that’s right,” said all the Voices cheerfully. “You couldn’t have said it better. Eh, you’ve had some education, you have. Anyone can see that.” “Well, of all the outrageous--” began Edmund, but Lucy interrupted. “Would I have to go upstairs at night, or would it do in daylight?” “Oh, daylight, daylight, to be sure,” said the Chief Voice. “Not at night. No one’s asking you to do that. Go upstairs in the dark? Ugh.” “All right, then, I’ll do it,” said Lucy. “No,” she said, turning to the others, “don’t try to stop me. Can’t you see it’s no use? There are dozens of them there. We can’t fight them. And the other way there is a chance.” “But a magician!” said Caspian. “I know,” said Lucy. “But he mayn’t be as bad as they make out. Don’t you get the idea that these people are not very brave?” “They’re certainly not very clever,” said Eustace.
C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3))