12 powerful quotes from C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory

C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory is a collection of profound reflections on faith, eternity, and the human soul. In this post, we’ll explore some of the best quotes from the book that capture Lewis' unique ability to blend deep theology with relatable insights. These quotes will inspire and challenge you to view life, purpose, and God’s glory through a fresh lens.

1. “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, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”

2. “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.”

3. “You have never met a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

4. “The proper aim of giving is to put the receiver in a state where he no longer feels the need of a gift.”

5. “God will make the feeblest and most lowly of us into a god or goddess, a type of the divine, and that will be His gift.”

6. “The Glory of God and, as our only means of glorifying Him, the salvation of human souls is the real business of life.”

7. “We are, in the truest sense, children of God and destined for greatness.”

8. “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 too heavy to bear.”

9. “The promise of glory is what gives us a reason to be fully human, to be who we are in the light of God’s future purpose.”

10. “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.”

11. “The thing we are trying to do is to become part of the true story—the story of human lives, raised up to glory, being transformed in Christ.”

12. “What we call ‘the splendor of the gospel’ is merely the weight of the glory of the life we are meant to lead, the life for which we were created, the life we are destined to have.”