Becoming Mrs. Lewis is a brilliant historical novel that I loved from the beginning till the end. I underlined so many quotes that spoke to my soul. Here you will find some of the best quotes about life and love. There are also great quotes about writing and motherhood.
This novel is at the top of my recommended reads for this year. Click the link to read my review. And keep reading below to see all my favorite quotes!
Best Quotes About Love
“If only our house were as full of love as it was books.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Or perhaps I did know my fear: that I’d never know real love.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Anything for love.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“That love,” … “will be what destroys. When love becomes a god it becomes a devil. And the ugly older sister will turn her love for Psyche into a god.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Because eventually for love to be true, we must show our real faces.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I hadn’t known that love could not be earned or bought or manipulated; it was just this—complete peace in the other’s presence.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I’d sought lovers to still the spinning sadness inside. I’d sought lovers to quell my pain. I’d sought lovers to fix what could not be fixed. Even when I found solace in another body, even when I’d conquered, still my soul cried out in loneliness. It was never enough to fill me. And still I’d pursued men with embarrassing voracity.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Best Quotes About Life
“Why did the everyday-ness of my life sometimes feel constricting, when the everyday-ness was everything?” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Love, sometimes we ache for what is familiar even though there is something better out there for us. Just give London a chance.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Humankind’s cruelty in its entirety.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“…waiting and longing are often the cheap fuel of desire.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“There’s this gap, Jack. This opening between the story it is and the story I had wanted it to be—that’s where the pain is, and that’s where God came in and where I now hope transformation can happen.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I want a life of my own—heart, mind, and soul, who I really am. I want my life to be my own, and yet I also want it to be family’s and God’s. I don’t know how to reconcile.”
“It’s about surrender, I think.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“It’s all in the past,” Warnie said.
“Except when it isn’t,” Jack replied…
“I wish I could scrub the horrid parts of the past clean for both of you.” I paused. “For all of us.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Not much in our world is as simple as it appears, and if you want to dig deeper, as you do, Joy, you must be prepared for the difficulty in that journey.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Quotes About Writing
“Motherhood is selfless. Writing is selfish. The clash of these two unyielding truths creates a thin tightrope, one I fall off of daily, damaging all of us.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Do remember, Joy, that what does not deeply concern you will not interest your reader.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Maybe it’s over for me. My writing, that is.”
…
“If I have nothing left, what is there of me for God to work through? There must always be more until there isn’t.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Quotes About God’s Love
“What would become of any of us if we were to become so brave as to believe his [Jesus] words?” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I didn’t deserve it: the ecstasy in the pain, the redemption of the past, love that surpassed all understanding. But God and Love don’t dole out their gifts on merit.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Again pain and loss were redeemed in the service of our lives.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“From that moment on, the love affair I would develop would be with my soul. He was already part of me; that much was clear. And now this would be where I would go for love—to the God in me. No more begging or pursuing or needing. It was my false self that was connected to the painful and demanding heart grasping at the world, leading me to despair. Same as Orual. Same as Psyche. Same as all of of humanity.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Possibly it was only a myth, Jack’s myth, that could have obliterated the false belief that I must pursue love in the outside world—in success, in acclaim, in performance, in a man.
The Truth: I was beloved of God.
Finally I could stop trying to force someone or something else to fill that role.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I was already loved. That was the answer to any question I held out to the world.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I had it all, everything I craved, and I hadn’t even known.
It had not taken a man’s body to finally open me to true love, but a man’s myth and God’s unwavering tenderness.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
The Difference Between a 4 and a 5 on the Enneagram
There are several great quotes in Becoming Mrs. Lewis that show the difference between a 4 and a 5 on the enneagram. I’ve read that C. S. Lewis was a 5, and from how he was captured in this story, I think that is very likely true. On the other hand, Joy Davidman seemed to be a 4 in my opinion. Here are some of the best quotes about life as a 4 and a 5 between Lewis and Davidman and other statements that would confirm the theory of their numbers.
“…that I cannot help trying to live what I think.”
“…I want you to live what you feel.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Yet reason and emotion never wedded well in me. As Blaise Pascal stated, ‘The heart has reasons that reason knows nothing of.'” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“If I attempt virtue, it brings light to my life. If I indulge desires, I invite fog and confusion.”
“Oh, Jack, that logic takes no account for the heart. How can you tell a heart what to do? I’m incapable of such things.”
…
“Your logic… It offers no rest for the heart.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“I’d been covered so long in the coal soot of my home, buried in the laundry, silenced by the screaming of my children and the berating of first my parents and then my husband—it wasn’t until England I saw who I could be: a brilliant light, cherished for who I was.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“My emotions clashed brutally—everything one can feel I felt and usually all at once.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Quotes About Nature
“My first spring in England was like the first day of being alive in the world, a deaf woman’s first chord of Beethoven.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“The only command nature demands of us is to look and be present. But do not demand more of her than she can give.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“…that same thrill that nature brings, the knowing that sometimes the world evokes a feeling so full of longing that words can’t capture it. And that longing hints at a place where evil can’t exist and heartbreak can’t abide.” — Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
Other Quotes From Becoming Mrs. Lewis
“At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane we shall have Spring again.” — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis qtd. in Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
“Courage, dear heart,” said Aslan. — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis qtd. in Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
I hope you enjoyed these lovely quotes from this brilliant book! They really are some of the best quotes about life and love for me! Read my review of Becoming Mrs. Lewis here.
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Emily Johns
Sarah, I have not read the book, but I watched the Masterpiece Theatre production of “Mrs. Lewis” just recently. It was riveting!! To go through what this woman went through and survive mentally……wow! Thanks for sharing this….I’ll have to get the book now and read it.
Emily Johns
Sarah, my apologies. After reading a summary of the book, I believe that the Mrs. Lewis I am speaking of is something quite different. But this book looks wonderful! I’m going to have to check it out.
Sarah
Emily JohnsWell now I’m intrigued to see the show you mentioned! Yes, this is one of my favorite books. It was so, so good!
Emily Johns
Sarah, my apologies. After reading a summary of the book, I believe that the Mrs. Lewis I am speaking of is something quite different. But this book looks wonderful! I’m going to have to check it out.