The Safest Road to Hell

“Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off…The only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy… Murder is no better than cards if cards do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

  • http://blynk107.blogspot.com kb

    I believe this is the elongated version of that beloved passage found in the Book of Hezekiah that simply goes: ” Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop; in Twiddling Thumbs doth he delight” (vs 6:26)
    :)

  • http://www.blakeatwood.com/blog Blake

    Hezekiah is my second favorite book, right after Hesitations.