A Grief Observed

These are some of my favorite parts from the book "A Grief Observed" by C.S.Lewis:

-"If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came."(p.37)
-"He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover himself." (p.38)
-"He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down." (p.52)
-This was probably my favorite thing I read: "The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed, might grow tired of his vile sport, might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary for us? Well, take your choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God, or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even moderately good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren’t." (p.43)
-"I need Christ, not something that resembles Him." (p.65)