quotations about angels
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
Angels and Demons can't cross over into our plane. So, instead we get what I call half-breeds. The influence peddlers. They can only whisper in our ears. A single word can give you courage, or turn your favorite pleasure into your worst nightmare. Those with the demon's touch and those part angel, living alongside us. They call it the balance.
KEVIN BRODBIN, MARK BOMBACK & FRANK CAPELLO
Constantine
When the Angels arrive, the devils leave.
EGYPTIAN PROVERB
When I was a child and heard about angels, I was both frightened and fascinated by the thought of these enormous, invisible presences in our midst. I conceived of them not as white-robed androgynes with yellow locks and thick gold wings, which was how my friend Matty Wilson had described them to me--Matty was the predecessor of all sorts of arcane knowledge--but as big, dark, blundering men, massive in their weightlessness, given to pranks and ponderous play, who might knock you over, or break you in half, without meaning to. When a child from Miss Molyneaux's infant school in Carrickdrum fell under the hoofs of a dray-horse one day and was trampled to death, I, a watchful six year old, knew who was to blame; I pictured his guardian angel standing over the child's crushed form with his big hands helplessly extended, not sure whether to be contrite or to laugh.
JOHN BANVILLE
The Untouchable
When angels visit earth, the messengers
Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind:
Before the throne, they all are living fire.
EMMA LAZARUS
"The Birth of Man: A Legend of the Talmud"
We are not alone in our struggles. We have help from beyond. Sometimes such help is wondrously manifested in encounters we cannot rationally explain. Sometimes such help is mysteriously conveyed through the hands and hearts of those we meet in the flesh. A corollary underpinning is like unto the first: Whether we recognize it or not, God wills good for all human beings. The key, of course, is whether we welcome the help and the holy intention.
DUKE TUFTY
"Voices of Faith: Does everyone have a guardian angel, even bad people?", Kansas City Star, March 4, 2016
They will come from the bright, sunny land, come on their pinions so fair; Jesus will send them its glory to tell, Angels will carry me there.
FANNY CROSBY
Will the Angels Come?
There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.
GREGORY THE GREAT
Homilies
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness in Nature", Essays
The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was, "What are angels?" New to questioning, unaccustomed to terror, unskilled in aloneness, the angels (we assume) fell into despair.
DONALD BARTHELME
"On Angels"
The angels may have wider spheres of action, may have nobler forms of duty, but right with them and with us is one and the same thing.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Living Words
Man is a mixed being, made up of a spiritual soul and of a fleshly body; the angels are pure spirits, herein nearer to God, only that they are created and finite in all respects, free from decay, free from the power of death, whereas God is infinite and uncreated.
J. C. HARE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Life is a tapestry: We are the warp; angels, the weft; God, the weaver. Only the Weaver sees the whole design.
EILEEN ELIAS FREEMAN
The Angels' Little Instruction Book: Learning from God's Heavenly Messengers
In this dim world of clouding cares, we rarely know, till 'wildered eyes see white wings lessening up the skies, the Angels with us unawares.
GERALD MASSEY
The Ballad of Babe Christabel
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON
The Federalist, Feb. 6, 1788
How do the angels get to sleep when the devil leaves the porch light on?
TOM WAITS
"Mr. Siegal", Heartattack and Vine
For God will deign to visit oft the dwellings of just men -- delighted, and with frequent intercourse -- thither will send his winged messengers on errants of supernal grace.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Criticism
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!
WILLIAM BLAKE
King Edward the Third
Angels shine from without because their spirits are lit from within by the light of God.
EILEEN ELIAS FREEMAN
The Angels' Little Instruction Book: Learning from God's Heavenly Messengers