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Virtue and Vice: A Dictionary of the Good Life
A Pocket Guide to Goodness Few writers have inspired more readers than author C. S. Lewis -- both through the enchanting volumes of his children's series and through his captivating adult classics such as Mere Christianity , The Screwtape Letters , The Great Divorce , and numerous others. Drawn from many works, this volume collects dictionary-like entries of Lewis's keenest observations and best advice on how to live a truly good life. From ambition to charity, despair to duty, hope to humility, Lewis delivers clear, illuminating definitions to live by.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published February 15, 2005
29 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Lewis
1,032 books47.9k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 6, 2025
Lewis is one of the few (only?) authors whose work loses nothing for being excerpted and presented topically. He’s an original and clear thinker so every sentence is worth writing out and trying to remember. Alas, my commonplace is not large enough for such a project so instead I’m going to sleep with this under my pillow and hope it gets through to me by osmosis (and/or continuing paging through and reading entries at random until the library makes me give it back, the big meanies).
January 25, 2024
I enjoy very much Lewis’ writing style. It is easy to imagine him saying the thing I’m reading. He is all over the place with being serious, poignant, and even some times hilarious at the same time. I’m glad this book was put together. It is a neat dictionary of his thoughts on things which matter. Reading through it is faster than not as the terms are not each too long defined.
December 27, 2008
I was intimidated with this book when I first received it, but it was one of the easiest Lewis books for me to read! I love C.S. Lewis and his take on life. Sometimes he gets it just right and his statements stand throughout time. There were quotes in the book that made me think, and ones that made me laugh!
July 18, 2008
Very good book. Makes you take a long hard look at yourself. It won't be a comfortable look, but you will learn more through the course of reading this book than you have much of your life...about who you really are, without lying to yourself. ;)
November 10, 2019
Here are some great thoughts by C.S. Lewis about virtue and vice.
"Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people--which is what I think it does mean--then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good (p. 1)."
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare (p. 4)."
"Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity...and less than we ought on those who really need our help (p. 5)."
"'God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy (p. 7).'"
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point (p. 9)."
"You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues (p. 9)."
"Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins which provoke it (p. 10)."
"Your real, new self...will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him (p. 11)."
"You will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making... Lose your life and your will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life (p. 12)."
"Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in (p. 13)."
"Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair (p. 17)."
"'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says (p. 20)."
"I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality...asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me (p. 21)."
"The happiness that God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight (p. 25)."
"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.' It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received (p. 25)."
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done (p. 32).'"
"Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither (p. 33)."
"He wants you to know Him: wants to give you Himself (p. 35)."
"Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go (p. 47)."
"'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full--there's nowhere for Him to put it (p. 57).'"
"Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection (p. 59)."
"Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind (p. 65)."
"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone (p. 66)."
"A man is never so proud as when striking an attitude of humility (p. 67)."
"If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road (p. 68)."
"God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have (p. 70)."
"We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only complete realist (p. 87)."
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself (p. 88)."
"All these toys were never intended to possess my heart...my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ (p. 90)."
"Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people--which is what I think it does mean--then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good (p. 1)."
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare (p. 4)."
"Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity...and less than we ought on those who really need our help (p. 5)."
"'God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy (p. 7).'"
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point (p. 9)."
"You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues (p. 9)."
"Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins which provoke it (p. 10)."
"Your real, new self...will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him (p. 11)."
"You will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making... Lose your life and your will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life (p. 12)."
"Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in (p. 13)."
"Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair (p. 17)."
"'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says (p. 20)."
"I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality...asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me (p. 21)."
"The happiness that God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight (p. 25)."
"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.' It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received (p. 25)."
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done (p. 32).'"
"Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither (p. 33)."
"He wants you to know Him: wants to give you Himself (p. 35)."
"Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go (p. 47)."
"'God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full--there's nowhere for Him to put it (p. 57).'"
"Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection (p. 59)."
"Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind (p. 65)."
"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone (p. 66)."
"A man is never so proud as when striking an attitude of humility (p. 67)."
"If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road (p. 68)."
"God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have (p. 70)."
"We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only complete realist (p. 87)."
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself (p. 88)."
"All these toys were never intended to possess my heart...my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ (p. 90)."
April 14, 2018
Just excerpts from other Lewis books arranged as a dictionary of terms.
December 26, 2020
Familiar words and wisdom from Lewis compiled and processed. Quick and easy read, as someone who was a master of language, it is interesting to read his nuancing of words we are quite familiar with.
November 8, 2025
Excepts from Lewis’s works organized by topic.
September 2, 2015
A collection of excerpts from the writings of C.S. Lewis, arranged by topic in alphabetical order. While they are wonderful snippets of Lewis's wisdom, it would be better to read them within their original texts.
May 13, 2008
Very interesting. Full of wisdom.
March 10, 2013
Definitely gonna reread some passages when I have some questions about life. If you think you know what "love" means or any other word but not completely sure, this book is for you.
October 21, 2015
I think I'm going to memorize it.
December 6, 2015
This book has most of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes in it. I really enjoyed reading it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews