'Perhaps, however, the most important thing is to keep on: not to be discouraged however often one yields to the temptation, but always to pick yourself up again and ask forgiveness. In reviewing your sins don't either exaggerate or minimise them. Call them by their ordinary names and try to see them as you wd. see the same faults in somebody else - no special blackening or whitewashing ... Of course there are other helps which are mere commonsense. We must learn by experience to avoid either trains of thought or social situations which for us (not necessarily for everyone) lead to temptations. Like motoring - don't wait till the last moment before you put on the brakes but put them on, gently and quietly, while the danger is still a good way off.'
CS Lewis in Walter Hooper (Ed.), The Collected Letters of CS Lewis Vol III, p.1285.
