"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
— St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:12
"How can [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces"
— C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
"A human being must become real before it can expect to receive any message from the superhuman; that is, it must be speaking with its own voice (not one of its borrowed voices), expressing its actual desires (not what it imagines that it desires), being for good or ill itself, not any mask, veil, or person."
— C.S. Lewis, from a letter to a friend explaining the title of Till We Have Faces
Lord, hear my voice, my present voice I mean,
Not that which may be speaking an hour hence
(For I am Legion) in an opposite sense,
And not by show of hands decide between
The multiple factions which my state has seen
Or will see. Condescend to the pretence
That what speaks now is I; in its defence
Dissolve my parliament and intervene.
Thou wilt not, though we asked it, quite recall
Free will once given. Yet to this moment's choice
Give unfair weight. Hold me to this. Oh strain
A point—use legal fictions; for if all
My quarrelling selves must bear an equal voice,
Farewell, thou hast created me in vain.
— C.S. Lewis, "Legion"
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
— St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:13
