Quote from Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I liked two quotes from nearly the same spot in the book as I was reading it just recently. I won't spoil what's going on in the story if you haven't read it, so you can find out yourself what the context is if you care to. I like the points in these quotes very much.

The pleasure (quite new to him) of being liked and, still more, of liking other people, was what kept Eustace from despair.

The pleasure of liking other people is greater than the pleasure of being liked, which Man seems to usually forget in his more conscious thought. I suspect that people who have had wholesome relationships with people know this deep down, unconsciously at least. There is a real peace and complete contentment in being able to really like other people.

So [the lion] came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it--if you can understand.

This I liked because my friend and I were talking about awe and fear of God and about the perhaps natural fear-of-His-power aspect, but then of course also I was talking about how I sometimes have a sense of fear-awe that is like fear, but not fear of having anything done to me. As in, I am definitely terrified, over-awed, overpowered. Partly it feels in those moments like my mind literally cannot grasp the object of its fear, and that's part of why it's afraid.


Both quotes are from Chapter 7 of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.