“ If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean" ”
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942). copy citation
Author | C. S. Lewis |
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Source | The Screwtape Letters |
Topic | meaning |
Date | 1942 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | https://www.truechristianity.info/en/the_screwtape_letters.php |
Context
“so seriously that a deficiency in this sense is almost the only deficiency at which they feel shame. Humour is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean"; if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer "mean" but a comical fellow. Mere cowardice is shameful; cowardice boasted of with humorous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can passed off as funny.”
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