“Either we give up trying to be good, or else we become very unhappy indeed. For, make no mistake: if you are really going to try to meet all the demands made on the natural self, it will not have enough left over to live on. The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you. And your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier. In the end, you’ll either give up trying to be good, or else become one of those people who, as they say, ‘live for others’ but always in a discontented, grumbling way—always wondering why the others don’t notice it more and always making a martyr of yourself. And once you’ve become that you’ll be a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than you would have been if you’d remained frankly selfish.”
—C S Lewis.
