quotations about Hell
Now let us try for a moment to realize, as far as we can, the nature of that abode of the damned which the justice of an offended God has called into existence for the eternal punishment of sinners. Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke. The straitness of this prison house is expressly designed by God to punish those who refused to be bound by His laws. In earthly prisons the poor captive has at least some liberty of movement, were it only within the four walls of his cell or in the gloomy yard of his prison. Not so in hell. There, by reason of the great number of the damned, the prisoners are heaped together in their awful prison, the walls of which are said to be four thousand miles thick: and the damned are so utterly bound and helpless that, as a blessed saint, saint Anselm, writes in his book on similitudes, they are not even able to remove from the eye a worm that gnaws it.
JAMES JOYCE
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.
C. S. LEWIS
The Great Divorce
[One] must look into hell before one has any right to speak of heaven.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
letter to Colette O'Niel, Oct. 23, 1916
Perhaps the thought of going to hell doesn't alarm you, because you don't believe in it. That may be your belief, but if hell exists, your lack of belief won't make it go away. Standing on a freeway and saying, "I don't believe in trucks" won't make the 18-wheeler disappear.
KIRK CAMERON
Still Growing
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to go to hell any more than the next guy (especially if eternal conscious torment ends up involving some form of nonstop Barry Manilow music marathon). It's just that the threat of hell doesn't move me any longer.
BRIAN JONES
Getting Rid of the Gorilla
There's a lot of loose talk going around to the effect that Hell doesn't exist. It never seems to strike these gabby pundits that not to exist may be precisely the reality of Hell.
HUGH HOOD
Near Water
Heaven and Hell are, in my opinion, much like God: a feel-good idea that swims in the minds of people, but has little bearing in reality. It's also a nifty way to control people through fear.
ANONYMOUS
World Religions in a Nutshell
In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.
C. S. LEWIS
The Problem of Pain
Hell is separated from heaven; for all who are in hell, when they lived in the world, were in the mere delights of the body and the flesh from the love of self and the world; but all who are in heaven, when they lived in the world, were in the delights of the soul and the spirit from love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. Because these loves are opposite, therefore the heavens and the hells are so entirely separated, that a spirit who is in hell dares not raise the crown of his head, or even put forth a finger thence; for the moment he attempts it, he is racked and tortured.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Heaven and its Wonders and Hell
Hell is not evil; it's a place where evil gets punished. Hell is not pleasant, appealing, or encouraging. But Hell is morally good, because a good God must punish evil.
RANDY ALCORN
If God Is Good
Redemption can be found in hell itself if that's where you happen to be.
LIN JENSEN
Bad Dog!
This was hell then; it wasn't anything to worry about: it was just his own familiar room.
GRAHAM GREENE
Brighton Rock
Just because your sins have landed you in Hell doesn't mean you shouldn't seek Grace.
EDWARD LEE
House Infernal
Canst thou fly too fast from hell and damnation? Canst thou be too carefull to avoid those paths, which, though strewed with roses, lead down to the chambers of death? Whether is it better thy flesh should murmur, or thy soul should perish? O that knowing these terrors of the Lord, our whole life might be one constant flight from the wrath that is to come!
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On the Misery of the Damned", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
Hell is the centre of evils and, as you know, things are more intense at their centres than at their remotest points.
JAMES JOYCE
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Notes from the Underground
The devil, as a master of deceit, does everything he can to keep people from believing in the existence of a hell; but hell is a literal state of existence that will be the plight of all those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
TIM LAHAYE
Revelation Unveiled
There are more gluttons than drunkards in hell.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Money doesn't spend in hell.... The devil deals in a different coin.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Blue Moon
You might be wondering--the hard-men among you, the nutters, the glassers, the thugs--whether you couldn't hack it in Hell, whether you couldn't, when it came right down to it, just butch the bastard out. Well guess what: You couldn't.
GLEN DUNCAN
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