Thursday, August 5, 2010

Thoughts on Humility - C. S. Lewis

The following is a modified quote from 'The Screwtape Letters', by C. S. Lewis. It needed to be modified because the context of the book makes it difficult for a direct quote to make sense to those who do not know it, and it would have been a pain to explain it. 





"Thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. 

Humility is not a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of your own talents and character. Some talents your really have. Don't fix in your mind, the idea that Humility is trying to believe those talents are less valuable than you believe them to be. No doubt they are infact less valuable, but that is not the point. 

God wants you, in the end to be so free from any bias in your own favor that you can rejoice in your own talents as frankly and gratefully as in your neighbor's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant or a waterfall. God wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognize all creatures (even yourself) as glorious and excellent things - when you have really learned to love your neighbor as yourself, then you will be allowed to love yourself as their neighbor. "

No comments:

Post a Comment