Joy Davidman > Quotes

“See yourself in the mirror, you're separate from yourself. See the world in the mirror, you're separate from the world. I don't want that separation anymore.”
― Joy Davidman

“Being a fool for God was not merely alright but liberating.”
― Joy Davidman

“The modern materialist often makes it simply: "Do what you like," and then rushes off to ask his psychoanalyst when he no longer likes anything.”
― Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments

“I suppose it's unfair, tricks of argument that leave wounds, but with this sort of thing that (C.S.) Lewis does, what I feel is a craftsman's joy at the sight of a superior performance.”
― Joy Davidman

“What war did for him (hasten disillusionment with communism), childbirth did for me. I began to notice what neglected, neurotic waifs the children of Communists were and to question the genuineness of the love of mankind that didn't begin at home.”
― Joy Davidman

“I became a communist because later on I was going to become a Christian.”
― Joy Davidman

“I had no knowledge of divine help, and all the world lost faith in gradual progress.”
― Joy Davidman

“I changed. I have been turning into a different person since that half-minute.”
― Joy Davidman

“We sucked in atheism with our canned milk.”
― Joy Davidman

“The cold white moon dissolving in the air,
And dripping liquid silver through the pines,
Till it surrounded me in silver dew,
All of the brightness soft within my arms.”
― Joy Davidman, Naked Tree: Love Sonnets to C.S. Lewis and Other Poems

“It is true that few of us can worship the self naked and unashamed for very long. For one thing, it simply doesn't work. Living for his own pleasure is the least pleasurable thing a man can do: if his neighbours don't kill him in disgust, he will die slowly of boredom and lovelessness.”
― Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain