“We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking, there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest."
"Pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.”​

“It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very centre of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently, it is far more subtle and deadly.”

​[...]

“We must not think Pride is something God forbids because He is offended at it, or that Humility is something He demands as due to His own dignity—as if God Himself was proud.

"The point is, He wants you to know Him: wants to give you Himself. And He and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into any kind of touch with Him, you will, in fact, be humble—delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life. He is trying to make you humble in order to make this moment possible: trying to take off a lot of silly, ugly, fancy-dress in which we have all got ourselves up and are strutting about like the little idiots we are.”

[I] mentioned only the Materialist view and the Religious view. But to be complete, I ought to mention the In-between view called Life-Force philosophy, or Creative Evolution, or Emergent Evolution. The wittiest expositions of it come in the works of Bernard Shaw, but the most profound ones in those of Bergson. People who hold this view say that the small variations by which life on this planet 'evolved' from the lowest forms to Man were not due to chance to to the 'striving' or 'purposiveness' of a Life-Force. 

When people say this, we must ask them whether by Life-Force they mean something with a mind or not. If they do, then 'a mind bringing life into existence and leading it to perfection' is really a God, and their view is thus identical with the Religious. If they do not, then what is the sense in saying that something without a mind 'strives' or has 'purposes'? This seems to me fatal to their view. 

One reason why many people find Creative Evolution so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do to want to believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the Life-Force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. 

The Life-Force is a sort of tame God. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of the cost. Is the Life-Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?

There is a lie that the devil tells us, which I believe to be the biggest and most dangerous lie that many people fall for. And the lie he tells you is, 'You've got time.' You. Have Got. Time. 

And here's how the lie is dressed up:
- 'You've got time to repent, so keep sinning. You can get right with God later.'
- 'You've got time to keep living however you want. You don't have to worry about God and turning your life around just yet. Do it tomorrow. You've got time.'

This is a lie that is so easy to believe because it's comfortable. It lures us into a false sense of security to think that we can have our cake and eat it too. It's a lie that many fall for because it doesn't require any action on our part. It doesn't require us to change. It doesn't require us to crucify the flesh. But it does allow us to keep living life on our own terms—without ever pausing to evaluate where we're headed.

It's a lie that tells us that we're free to chase money, to chase power or relationships... or anything we think will fulfill us. But the reality is that at any given moment, we are one second away from Heaven or Hell."