“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose that you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? … Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.”
More from C. S. Lewis
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art....It has no survival value; rather…”
“We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know…”
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and…”
“Did you ever know, dear, how much you took away with you when you left?”