Culture is a bad qualification for a ruling class because…

Culture is a bad qualification for a ruling class because it does not qualify men to rule. The things we really need in our rulers—mercy, financial integrity, practical intelligence, hard work, and the like—are no more likely to be found in cultured persons than in anyone else.

— from p.46-47 of “The World’s Last Night And Other Essays” by C. S. Lewis (1960).

A hypocrite might (conceivably) repent and mend…

“A hypocrite might (conceivably) repent and mend; or he might be unmasked and rendered innocuous. But who could bring to repentance, and who can unmask, those who were attempting no deception? who don’t know that they are not the real thing because they don’t know that there ever was a real thing?”

– from p.48 of “The World’s Last Night And Other Essays” by C. S. Lewis (1960).

Prayer is not…

Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate.

– from p.10 of “The World’s Last Night And Other Essays” by C. S. Lewis (1960).