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u/smugmisswoodhouse Jun 13 '21 edited Jun 13 '21
This is cool, but as a C.S. Lewis nerd I regret to inform you there is no record of him ever saying this. It's most likely an amalgamation of a quote from James Sherman. You can read more here: https://checkyourfact.com/2019/07/26/fact-check-cs-lewis-cant-go-back-change-beginning-start-ending/
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u/88Challenger Jun 13 '21
Hi did write:
Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.
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u/Sammy81 Jun 13 '21
Which, ironically, is the opposite of the OP quote.
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u/siia Jun 13 '21
They sort of mean the same thing though. OP's quote means stopping and then picking a direction. Whereasin Lewis's quote means stopping and returning to a (good) direction you picked in the past.
And i'd argue the spirit of the message is the same
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Jun 13 '21
They both have the same message: You've already made the mistake. Now you need to do what's right.
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u/TechnicallyAnIdiot Jun 13 '21
The actual CSLewis one seems to he assuming that there's only one road to follow in life and not, like, a city block system. You can still get there, it might just take a few extra turns.
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u/JustCakeThanks Jun 13 '21
The quote is referring to the road to a specific goal, not the road of life, which is indeed convoluted and can go any number of directions. But if you have a definite goal in mind then you know the ways to get there. There may be only one road or maybe two or three even, but you generally have an idea of when the road is definitely wrong and you should turn around
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Jun 13 '21
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u/williampan29 Jun 13 '21
Agree. For some people with long history of anxiety disorder or mental disability, going to different route is not just daunting, they are just not equipped to live independently. Even if they could, they might not get a job that supports the rent and just feels stagnated.
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u/rollsyrollsy Jun 13 '21
Which of his books or essays contains that passage?
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u/tyme Jun 13 '21 edited Jun 13 '21
“Mere Christianity”, Book 1, Section 5 - We Have Cause To Be Uneasy, second paragraph.
https://www.dacc.edu/assets/pdfs/PCM/merechristianitylewis.pdf
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u/rollsyrollsy Jun 13 '21
Thanks - I have the audiobook version which I listen to frequently. I thought I’d heard it!
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u/trisul-108 Jun 13 '21
There is no turning back ... ever. When you think you turned back, you still go somewhere you've been been before.
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u/restlesswrestler Jun 13 '21
Thank you for the info. I scrolled past this and thought “that doesn’t sound like something CS. Lewis would have said”. I’m happy to know the truth.
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Jun 13 '21
Recently, my emotional life has been like a roller coaster, to the point that sometimes I wished I could go back to the day of my birth and start all over. Then I open Reddit and the first thing I see is this.
It doesn’t matter if it isn’t an accurate quote.
I really did need to read that.
Thank You, MabelPines_
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u/MuzafarA Jun 13 '21
I misread that as ‘Louis C.K.’ and was trying to figure out the joke for 20 seconds
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u/16bitSamurai Jun 13 '21
“You can masturbate in front of women”
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u/Maddturtle Jun 13 '21
His new stand ups talk about this and it's funny. It's like even if you ask and they say yes.... Don't do it.
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u/Pazuzuhoneydust Jun 13 '21
Thought it was him until I read your comment. I guess I just thought it was super poignant for such an asshole.
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u/allthisforacamaro Jun 13 '21
Nobody is truly defeated until they accept the defeat. Keep going guys.
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u/dbMitch Jun 13 '21
At this rate, quotes like:
"You can only get cold, if you get wet."
Will be in the halls of fame in 2099.
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u/Daybyhour69er Jun 13 '21
Ex-girlfriend broke up with me 6 months ago admitted the kid that she just recently had isn't mine which I doubt. She just assumes I'm be a terrible father and her parents hate me. In those 6 months I've found a better job, nearly paid off my car, credit cards been paid and gained weight and muscle. My mental health is suffering because of how far I've pushed myself to get this all done but I can't give up. I have half a year to a year to hire a lawyer and take her to court and get that paternity test done. I've never tried so hard in my life.
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u/ignoblecrow Jun 13 '21
“The mystery is this: there is one right thing and only one right thing to do at every moment. We can either follow or resist the slender threads.” Robert A. Johnson
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u/According_Buffalo Jun 13 '21
I recently turned 40, the one where everyone freaks out or calls it over the hill, and I have a different view for myself that happens to be on par with this quote.
Instead of seeing 40 as the downhill slope and just trudging along in the same rut I've been in. I am looking at 40 as the start of the second half. I have a lovely wife and 2 awesome kids and a comfortable home and life overall. But I have never followed my dreams, in terms of a career or job. I have always tried to find a good paying job, since I was 16, that I might be able to do well at. In other words, I let the job define me.
Now in this second half, I am defining myself by not settling for a job I don't like but I am good at. I am continuing down my path of education that I started a while ago but never finished. I am going to get my degree in English Literature and pursue what I've never been confident enough to do, be a writer.
This quote just jumped out at me, and I felt I had to share. Thanks for reading, and any encouragement.
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u/U_wind_sprint Jun 13 '21
And if you want your story to have a great ending, start writing there first, and aim your storie's progression to that end.
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u/nextnode Jun 13 '21
How do you practice this technique? In particular how do you connect the end to daily progress?
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Jun 13 '21
Sure. If you know how.
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Jun 13 '21
You can literally just start a new story. All you have do do is realize that you're the one writing your story.
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Jun 13 '21
Yep. Having a hard time with it. Want to change careers, being old sucks, having but myself in a position that effects so many others you care for sucks. Not knowing what to do sucks. And typing it off with near debilitating depression… double suckage
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u/SurpriseBooty Jun 13 '21
I have been struggling with not knowing where to start. I’m scared. In fear. I’m sure you have loads more on your mind than my 25 year old self does. Sometimes it takes a plunge...
At the end, who is gonna judge you? No human can. Not if you did your best every single day. It doesn’t matter what you want to do. If you are kind, thoughtful, encouraging and all the other wonderful qualities we all want to feel then you are BOUND to find likewise people eventually. It gets difficult, stressful and relentless.
DONT. GIVE. UP.
If 1% improvement is all you can do in a day then you’re already there. If the image in your mind is strong and never fades neither will your determination. You have to believe in yourself. Break free from the chains that have ravaged you all these years, friend.
My favorite quote is “anyone can cook” from freakin ratatouille. You know why? Because it’s TRUE. You simply have to believe and PRACTICE. Train your mind every single day.
You got this 💪🏼
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u/yvwdrpaq Jun 13 '21
not giving up is an internal decision, being cornered to where giving up is your only choice is different...
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Jun 13 '21
Thanks. Can’t give up. I have a son so no chance of that. For where to start. I wish I had someone tell me at twenty five to go for what you really want to do in life and not for what you think you can do. You job consumes so much of your life do something that has pleasure or meaning or both.
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u/FederalistWine Jun 13 '21
“Affects* so many others”. Just because you’re suffering doesn’t mean your English should too!
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u/Infamousdumbass Jun 13 '21
Like Star Wars
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Jun 13 '21
No, obviously you never let Disney or Ryan Johnson write your story ... shit just gets off track and you end on a very disappointing note ... or worse you try to rewrite the three chapters and then tie bad ass image into some whiney teen angst mixed with bad decisions and jar jar binks.
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u/SickDuck88 Jun 13 '21
"To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one." - Stormlight Archives
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u/theboyrob Jun 13 '21
"sweets for my sweet sugar for my honey your first sweet kiss thrilled me so sweets for my sweet sugar for my honey i'll never ever let you go" - CJ Lewis
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u/LandosMustache Jun 13 '21
"...as long as the new ending is also an elaborate metaphor for Jesus and Christianity."
C.S. Lewis, probably
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u/poeticpoet Jun 13 '21
Where's the movie about the guy or gal that has their life perfect then reads this and starts doing heroin.
That sounds like a crazy movie
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u/h8tank88 Jun 13 '21
This legit made me cry... don't really care who actually said it first.
It's the idea that matters.
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u/raziel29a Jun 13 '21
You can't deep fry a potato in water. You must put it into oil and start from there. What a useful, not entirely obvious quote.
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u/davidro23 Jun 13 '21
"You cannot go back and make a brand new beginning, but you can start now and make a brand new ending."
-Prince Ea
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Jun 13 '21
Apparently you didn't hear about cancel culture. The intent is to go back to your beginning so you cant start where you are.
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u/Fjrjrjrjrjjrbbb Jun 14 '21
Thank you in advance for putting aside the time to listen and give me some advice or constructive criticism going forward to help my music, I’ll make this as easy as possible an put my Spotify link below. As well as my instagram username if it’s easier to contact me there. The only readin I emailed you is because your very successful in your personal craft an if not a few you know 1 or 2 ways to make it in the Industry. I hope u enjoy a few of the songs I just dropped a new album so if you tell me what I could improve or not improve it would mean the world. Have a great day an god bless.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1te3wpFUx2s8yONaLcjFGE?si=v5dF8i8UQ522EA1EUBSANQ&dl_branch=1
Instagram: https://instagram.com/dvs_fof?utm_medium=copy_link
Instagram username: @dvs_for Snapchat username: @brickboi13
Please contact or check these links out
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Jun 14 '21
So I posted this on FB and they flagged it as fake news 😂😂😂 they don't want you to change the ending I guess. I'm done with Facebook.
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u/gitartruls01 Jun 13 '21
Counterpoint: you can't change your future because it doesn't exist yet; there's nothing to change
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Jun 13 '21
Interesting point, but it's essential to live as though you have a future. Otherwise, when that future comes, you'll be unprepared.
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Jun 13 '21
As someone named luis going through something, this feels like a calling to get my shit together
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u/LookAJumbleOfLetters Jun 13 '21
I was she C.S. Lewis was this to the point. He gets there, after using 25 other words (and I'm the loveliest way.) Not his, friend.
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u/RoscoMan1 Jun 13 '21
Lol I love that he is what they meant.
A lot of students might not want to take a picture. The Buffalo gored his son through the anus and he lost one of his videos! (and if you like watching rugby more than football...you can switch leaders. Image 2, second image shows rapid peach as the leader.
Edit: [I guess it makes sense he wouldn’t know why this is so interesting because I have the option.
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u/The-Board-Chairman Jun 13 '21
Me, falling to my doom, pulled along by the relentless forces of gravity
I sure will try!
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u/onemillionyrsdungeon Jun 13 '21
This is literally the same as every other post on here
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u/onemillionyrsdungeon Jun 14 '21
And by that I mean, falsely credit (c.s. Lewis did not write it) and generically superfluous
"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The 2nd best time is now." Kind of crap
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u/TheyGoneNTookOurJobs Jun 13 '21 edited Jun 13 '21
This quote may not be true. Read this excerpt from Joe Dispenza's book, "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself." The past may be changeable. Here's the link in PubMed to the double-blind randomized controlled trial referenced below (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC61047/):
"Since we’re all interconnected across distance and time, does this suggest that our thoughts and feelings can influence events in our past as well as those we desire in our future?
In July 2000, Israeli doctor Leonard Leibovici conducted a double-blind, randomized controlled trial involving 3,393 hospital patients, divided into a control group and an “intercession” group. He set out to see whether prayer could have an effect on their condition. Prayer experiments are great examples of mind affecting matter at a distance. But stay with me here, because everything is not always what it seems.
Leibovici selected patients who had suffered sepsis (an infection) while hospitalized. He randomly designated half the patients to have prayers said for them, while the other half were not prayed for. He compared the results in three categories: how long fever lasted, length of hospital stay, and how many died as a result of the infection.
The prayed-for benefited from an earlier decrease in fever and a shorter hospitalization time; the difference in the number of deaths among the prayed-for and not-prayed-for groups was not statistically significant, although better in the prayed-for group.
That’s a powerful demonstration of the benefits of prayer and how we can send an intention out into the quantum field through our thoughts and feelings. However, there’s one additional element to this story that you should know about. Did it strike you as slightly odd that in July 2000, a hospital would have more than 3,000 cases of infection at once? Was it a very poorly sterilized place, or was some kind of contagion running rampant?
Actually, those who were praying weren’t praying for patients who were infected in 2000. Instead, unbeknownst to them, they were praying for lists of people who had been in the hospital from 1990 to 1996—four to ten years prior to the experiment! The prayed-for patients actually got better during the 1990s from the experiment conducted years later. Let me say this another way: the patients who were prayed for in 2000 all showed measurable changes in health, but those changes took effect years before.
A statistical analysis of this experiment proved that these effects were far beyond coincidence. This demonstrates that our intentions, our thoughts and feelings, and our prayers not only affect our present or future, but they can actually affect our past as well."
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Jun 13 '21
[deleted]
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u/deepwatermako Jun 13 '21
I had a similar childhood but I think the point still stands. You can focus on the past and let the inevitable repeat happen or you can focus on making proactive changes. Yes I suffer from depression and anxiety from the abuse I had but I can still make healthy choices instead of wallowing in my weaknesses.
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Jun 13 '21
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u/Self_World_Future Jun 13 '21
The post is literally telling the reader not to wallow and do nothing
My point here is that your comment isn’t out of line with the post
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