“It is the magician's bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.”
The Abolition of Man (1943)
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Clive Staples Lewis 272
Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist 1898–1963Related quotes
“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.”
Source: Anna Karenina
Book I, ch. 24 (p. 28)
The Ladder of Perfection (1494)
Context: The purpose of prayer is not to inform our Lord what you desire, for He knows all your needs. It is to render you able and ready to receive the grace which our Lord will freely give you. This grace cannot be experienced until you have been refined and purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer. For although prayer is not the cause for which our Lord gives grace, it is nevertheless the means by which grace, freely given, comes to the soul.
(Hudson Taylor’s Choice Sayings: A Compilation from His Writings and Addresses. London: China Inland Mission, n.d., 52).
Variant: Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about, or to make trouble about.
Campaign rally, Los Angeles, California http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/03/on_super_bowl_sunday_a_rally_b_1.html (3 February 2008)
2000s
A speech on “Air Power” (29 August 1941)