Quotes From "A Severe Mercy: A Story Of Faith Tragedy And Triumph" By Sheldon Vanauken

1
Whatever one of us asked the other to do - it was assumed the asker would weigh all the consequences - the other would do. Thus one might wake the other in the night and ask for a cup of water; and the other would peacefully (and sleepily) fetch it. We, in fact, defined courtesy as 'a cup of water in the night'. And we considered it a very great courtesy to ask for the cup as well as to fetch it. . Sheldon Vanauken
2
Both Heaven and Hell are retroactive, all of one's life will eventually be known to have been one or the other. Sheldon Vanauken
3
To believe with certainty, somebody said, one has to begin by doubting. Sheldon Vanauken
4
C.S. Lewis in his second letter to me at Oxford, asked how it was that I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. 'Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest? It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed by it--how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren't adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home. Sheldon Vanauken
5
What we did see was that jealousy is fear: it can corrode even if quite baseless. Sheldon Vanauken
6
Corruption is never compulsory. Sheldon Vanauken