The Worst Sin

The Worst Sin

If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchasity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual; the pleasure of putting other people down, of bossing and patronizing and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred.

For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.
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Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under criminals than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The criminal’s cruelty may sometimes be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.


C.S. Lewis