A Christian atmosphere is no protection against preening egos.

The Inklings were comrades who have been touched by war, who view life through the lens of war, yet who look for hope and found it, in fellowship, where so many other modern writers and intellectuals saw only broken narratives, disfigurement, and despair.

He loved his family, his friends, his writing, his painting; he knew their flaws, but they neither surprised nor embittered him.

A Christian's duty, Lewis believed, is not simply to tolerate "X" but to make life with "X" an occasion to work on one's own character flaws.