Best Quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia

By Adrienne Rivera. Sep 24, 2023. 6:16 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Children's Books, Movie Tie-Ins

Irish writer, professor, and amateur theologian C.S. Lewis is best known for his children's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Inspired by Beatrix Potter and his strong Anglican faith and strong friendship and rivalry with another British fantasy heavyweight, JRR Tolkien, Lewis' Naria series has captivated readers for years with its imagination, heart, and allegory. The Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted numerous times for television, film, and radio, most notably as a BBC series and as a series of several films by Walden Media. It was recently announced that director Greta Gerwig will adapt at least two Narnia films for streaming service Netflix. Let’s take a look at some of the more moving passages from this timeless and beloved fantasy series:

The Lion, the Witch, and the WardrobeNone of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do, but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words, everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something that you don't understand, but in the dream, it feels as if it had some enormous meaning--either a terrifying one that turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan, each one of the children felt something jump in it's inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt like some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of Summer. –The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

 

"Your Highness speaks as you have been taught," said the Doctor. "But it is all lies. There are no ghosts there. That is a story invented by the Telmarines. Your Kings are in deadly fear of the sea because they can never quite forget that in all stories, Aslan comes from over the sea. They don't want to go near it, and they don't want anyone else to go near it. So they have let great woods grow up to cut their people off from the coast. But because they have quarreled with the trees, they fear the woods. And because they are afraid of the woods, they imagine that they are full of ghosts. And the Kings and great men, hating both the sea and the wood, partly believe these stories and partly encourage them. They feel safer if no one in Narnia dares to go down to the coast and look out to sea--toward Aslan’s land and the morning and the eastern end of the world." –Prince Caspian.

 

At that moment, she heard soft, heavy footfalls coming along the corridor behind her; of course, she remembered what she had been told about the Magician walking in his bare feet and making no more noise than a cat. It is always better to turn around than to have anything creeping up behind your back. Lucy did so.

"One word, Ma'am," he said, returning from the fire, limping because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right; I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always likes to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed or made up all those things and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow." –The Silver Chair.

 

"I was the lion." And as Shasta gasped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Avaris. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses new strength of fear for the last mile to reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you." – The Horse and His Boy.

 

The Magicians NephewBut inside itself, in the very sap of it, the tree (so to speak) never forgot that other tree in Narnia to which it belonged. Sometimes it would move mysteriously when there was no wind blowing: I think that when this happened, there were high winds in Narnia, and the English tree quivered.... However that might be, it was proved later that there was still magic in its wood. When Digory was quite middle-aged...there was a great storm all over the south of England that blew the tree down. He couldn't bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the timber made into a wardrobe, which he put in his big house in the country. And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did. –The Magician's Nephew

 

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I could not write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now, at last, they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. – The Last Battle

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Adrienne Rivera
Adrienne Rivera received her MFA in fiction from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She currently lives in southern Indiana.


 

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