One becomes who they pretend to be... C.S. Lewis?

You are close. Lewis said, “All mortals tend to turn into the things they are pretending to be.”

It makes good sense. One doesn't become a Christian (or anything else) overnight. You begin to act like a Christian, you get positive responses from Christians, you refine you actions (e.g., take on prayer, give up swearing), and eventually you become a Christian. C. S. Lewis is an excellent psychologist.

Cheers,

Bruce

It is actually quite laughable that Christians cannot see trying to use CS Lewis the master fairy story writer to back up their own fairy story is so hilariously funny!

Hey! Someone in my twitter feed shared this question so I came to give it a look. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I am book-marking and will be tweeting it to my followers!

"People become what they pretend to be."

Let's see..

First we have a thought, than a word can follow or an action.

If the word or action keeps getting manifested, it becomes a habit.

A habit is eventually made character, the personality is changed.

An answer to your question:

"They have a certain tone or quality which is there even when he is not

playing, just as a mathematician's mind has a certain habit and outlook which is there even when he is not doing mathematics. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of "virtue." - See note 1

".. When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are. And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were.

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. That is why children's games are so important. They are always pretending to be grown-ups—playing soldiers, playing shop. But all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits, so that the pretense of being grown-up helps them to grow up in earnest." - See note 1

Man, you made me look up something very, very interesting! Thanks :)

“All mortals tend to turn into the things they are pretending to be.”

"We are what we believe we are." - C. S. Lewis

cslewis_org or thekindlings_com might help you find more

Along the same lines, here's two quotes from Billy Sunday

"More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent." Billy Sunday

"Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile." Billy Sunday

Actually, I know that statement best from another source:

This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Introduction to "Mother Night"

I'm not sure what you're using from "Mere Christianity" for that. The best Lewis quote I have on the topic comes from another book:

If this is hypocrisy, then I must conclude that hypocrisy can do a man good. To be ashamed of what you were about to say, to pretend that something which you had meant seriously was only a joke—this is an ignoble part. But it is better than not to be ashamed at all. And the distinction between pretending you are better than you are and beginning to be better in reality is finer than moral sleuthhounds conceive. I was, in intention, concealing only a part: I accepted his principles at once, made no attempt internally to defend my own “unexamined life.”

-- C.S. Lewis, "Surprised by Joy"

[If you need to find it, it's in the chapter about serving in WWI, entitled "Good Company."]

Here's another:

Conformity to the social environment, at first merely instinctive or even mechanical—how should a jelly not conform?—now becomes an unacknowledged creed or ideal of Togetherness or Being Like Folks. Mere ignorance of the law they break now turns into a vague theory about it—remember, they know no history—a theory expressed by calling it conventional or Puritan or bourgeois “morality.” Thus gradually there comes to exist at the centre of the creature a hard, tight, settled core of resolution to go on being what it is, and even to resist moods that might tend to alter it.

-- C.S. Lewis, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" (generally published with "The Screwtape Letters")

I don't agree with the quote because if one does this one is only lying to oneself in order to please their peers, I'll try and think of one..

"One is who one was born to be, if one ends up being what one was not born to be one is not being who one was meant to be"..

One of his more famous quotes goes like this- "We are what we believe we are." Even if it just reiterates your thesis, it's coming from an authoritative source.

☼John☼

I respect C.S. Lewis as an intellectual but that is a terrible quote especially when you consider the charlatan.

If he literally meant what they "strive" to be then I take back what I said.

Here is a list of quotes.