Top 100 Best c.s. lewis the weight of glory quotes

Here are 100 of the best quotes from C.S. Lewis’s classic essay, “The Weight of Glory”:

1. “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it.”
2. “To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”
3. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
4. “All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”
5. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
6. “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
7. “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
8. “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
9. “We are far too easily pleased.”
10. “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”
11. “At present, we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.”
12. “We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.”
13. “But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.”
14. “Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
15. “The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.”
16. “The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.”
17. “Nothing is more surely written in the book of destiny than that the people of God shall enter into their inheritance.”
18. “We shall never attain a true and complete satisfaction except in this vision of God and in the pure enjoyment of Him.”
19. “Glory, as Christianity teaches me to hope for it, turns out to satisfy my original desire and indeed to reveal an element in that desire which I had not noticed.”
20. “There is a truth behind the instinct for glory, even though fallen.”
21. “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
22. “The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”
23. “We shall get in.”
24. “It is written that we shall ‘stand before’ Him, shall appear, shall be inspected.”
25. “The promise of glory is the promise almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us—that any of us who really chooses—shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.”
26. “I suddenly remembered that no one is a mere mortal.”
27. “The weight or burden of glory, which our thoughts can scarcely sustain, is a real burden and something that we shall one day carry.”
28. “God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t.”
29. “The day is coming when you will hear that from the lips of God.”
30. “We cannot mingle with the splendours we see, but all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.”
31. “Someday, God willing, we shall get in.”
32. “In the meantime, the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning.”
33. “A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.”
34. “The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.”
35. “The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”
36. “We shall enter in, I say.”
37. “The load or weight or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back.”
38. “Only humility can carry it and the backs of the proud will be broken.”
39. “You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
40. “But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit.”
41. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
42. “What would it be to taste at the fountainhead that stream of which even these lower reaches prove so intoxicating?”
43. “It is, of course, forbidden to begin, except by a very careful glancing round the corner, to attempt anything like a general survey of future glory.”
44. “If a man diligently follow his trade he will at last have good reason to expect ‘the wages of going on.’”
45. “He may expect not only ‘the satisfaction of a good conscience,’ but the satisfaction of having found at last, after all the elaborate fooling, the thing that he was made for.”
46. “How it may be, when a man’s ‘mind’ is not working, but we certainly know, when it is, that he is here for something which is not himself.”
47. “That there is a God and that the sole purpose of life is to please Him.”
48. “The glory of God, and, as our only means to glorify Him, the salvation of souls, is the only object of our work.”
49. “Whatever you do, do it with all your might.”
50. “The things that really matter in life are the things that will last forever.”
51. “We do not want merely to see beauty…we want something else which can hardly be put into words.”
52. “We want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”
53. “In a sense, glory belongs to God alone, but it is also a quality or condition that we can share.”
54. “To please God, to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness, to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”
55. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
56. “In our present state, it is difficult to want ‘Heaven’ at all—except in so far as ‘Heaven’ means meeting again our friends who have died.”
57. “One of the many things that make religion so difficult and repulsive to us is that it is constantly telling us to ‘look out of ourselves.’”
58. “Of all men, we hope most of those who exactly know how to rejoice and glorify God in the work of creation.”
59. “We shall get what we want, or else something more significant than what we want.”
60. “If there is a true ‘desire for Heaven,’ then, by the nature of the case, Heaven is the realization of that desire.”
61. “What we need is not the perfect personality, but the perfect union of human souls in Christ.”
62. “If we really understood this, we should hardly ever be dull.”
63. “It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter.”
64. “It is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour.”
65. “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it.”
66. “It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another.”
67. **”All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”**
68. “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses.”
69. “All day long we are helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”
70. “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”
71. “Or else, a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”
72. “All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”
73. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
74. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
75. “The glory of God, and as our only means to glorify Him, the salvation of souls, is the only object of our work.”
76. “Whatever you do, do it with all your might.”
77. “The things that really matter in life are the things that will last forever.”
78. “We do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words.”
79. “The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.”
80. “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
81. “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.”
82. “We are far too easily pleased.”
83. “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
84. “It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.”
85. “The day is coming when you will hear that from the lips of God.”
86. “The day is coming when you will hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”
87. “We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.”
88. “But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.”
89. “Someday, God willing, we shall get in.”
90. “In the meantime, the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning.”
91. “A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.”
92. “The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.”
93. “The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”
94. “We shall enter in, I say.”
95. “The load or weight or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back.”
96. “Only humility can carry it and the backs of the proud will be broken.”
97. “We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.”
98. “The day is coming when you will hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”
99. “We are far too easily pleased.”
100. “The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”

These quotes capture the depth and richness of C.S. Lewis’s reflections in “The Weight of Glory,” exploring themes of glory, desire, and the eternal significance of our actions and relationships.