C.S. Lewis - this guy is unbelievable. this is some great stuff from mere christianity:
"a man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line."

"real things are not simple. they look simple, but they are not...besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. it is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect."

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. there is no such thing."

"we love and reason because he loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it."

"we have to take reality as it comes to us: there is no good jabbering about what it ought to be like or what we should have expected it to be like"

"sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help."

"i would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before."

"it is wonderful what you can do when you have to."

"the real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether, or see yourself as a small, dirty object."

about a christian"...probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. if you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily."