It is hard to fathom that the 10th month of 2026 is almost over, and we have also finished our 10th C.S. Lewis book! This is one that I have wanted to read for a few years, and I have heard quotes from it before. And I am not sure why I scheduled it for October.

This is a collection of 19 essays that were published between 1940–1962. It is actually a great option to pick up and get snippets of C.S. Lewis throughout my week, without having to sit down and really be in comprehension mode to understand what he is writing. The material is not light, but the essays are short and on topic. That being said, there are only two topics that really jumped out at me specifically. So much so that they might require two separate blog posts.

The first overlap of thoughts was from the essay on Equality and Democratic Education. And yes, there is overlap!

“Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows” (page 7). When equality is pushed, then a superior and inferior are created as a side effect. And then who decides what or whom is superior or inferior?

“When equality is treated not as a medicine or a safety-gadget but as an ideal we begin to breed that stunted and envious sort of mind which hates all superiority” (page 9).

“Human nature will not permanently endure flat equality if it is extended from its proper political field into the more real, more concrete fields within. Let us wear equality; but let us undress every night” (page 12).

So much more in this short essay could be unpacked, but just these quotes that I have noted give so much food for thought. Especially in modern America, equality is touted as such an ideal. But we humans mess it up as soon as we think we have a grip on it.

I also highlighted a lot in the essay titled Democratic Education. And yes, I actually pull out and use a highlighter. I intend to keep these books and read them again, so I want to remember what I grasped the last time I read them. I am also going to just put some quotes below and let you process them in your mind…and hopefully, it draws you to read this book for yourself!

“Democratic education, says Aristotle, ought to mean, not the education which democrats like, but the education which will preserve democracy. Until we have realised that the two things do not necessarily go together we cannot think clearly about education” (page 31).

“An education on those lines will be pleasing to democratic feelings. It will have repaired the inequalities of nature. But it is quite another question whether it will breed a democratic nation which can survive, or even one whose survival is desirable” (page 32).

“A nation of dunces can be safe only in a world of dunces” (page 33).

“Envy is insatiable. The more you concede to it the more it will demand. No attitude of humility which you can possibly adopt will propitiate a man with an inferiority complex…you are trying to introduce equality where equality is fatal” (pages 33–34).

“Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves” (page 37).