Letters to an American Lady

I recently finished C. S. Lewis' Letters to an American Lady, a small book consisting of the correspondence Lewis wrote to an American friend over the course of the last 15 years of his life. I found it delightful--Lewis's letters are generally short, to the point, and humorous, but his gift for stating spiritual truth graciously and clearly comes through as well. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Lewis. Here are some favorite quotes.

"Yes, we have the word "dither"--and the thing too. And our offices are in a dither too. This is so common that I suspect there must be something in the very structure of a modern office which creates Dither. Otherwise why does our "College Office" find full time work for a crowd of people in doing what the President of the College, 100 years ago, did in his spare time without a secretary and without a typewriter? (The more noise, heat, and smell a machine produces the more power is being wasted!)"

In the next letter: "Oh--I'm often in a dither: usually when I've made two engagements for the same time in different places."

"We mustn't let these modern doctors get us down by calling a cold a virus and a sore throat a streptococcus, you know!"

"Yes, I'm sick of our Abracadabrist poets. What gives the show away is that their professed admirers give quite contradictory interpretations of the same poem--I'm prepared to believe that an unintelligible picture is really a very good house if all is admirers tell me so; but when one says it's a horse, and the next that it's a ship, and the third that it's an orange, and the fourth that it's Mt. Everest, I give it up."

"I'm sorry about your two jealous colleagues. I suppose the only way with thorns in the flesh (until one can get them out) is not to press on the place where they are embedded; i.e. to stop one's thoughts (firmly but gently: no good snapping at oneself, it only increases the fuss--read St. Francois de Sales' chapter on Meekness toward oneself) whenever one finds them moving towards the unpleasant people..."

"All blessings. 'Beneath are the everlasting arms' even when it doesn't feel like it."

"Don't be too easily convinced that God really wants you to do all sorts of work you needn't do. Each must do his duty "in that state of life to which God has called him." Remember that a belief in the virtues of doing for doing's sake is characteristically feminine, characteristically American, and characteristically modern: so that three veils may divide you from the correct view!"

"What on earth is the trouble about there being a rumour of my death? There's nothing discreditable in dying: I've know the most respectable people to do it!'

"And what is a "wall can opener"? It suggests either opening a tin by means of a wall or opening a wall by means of a tin, and both sound very strange operations."

"I'm glad you can still enjoy a new dress. I can still dislike a new suit."

"Remember, tho' we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round--we get afraid because we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting,? Don't you think Our Lord says to you 'Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?'"