quotations about Hell
I told him I believed in hell, and that certain people, like me, had to live in hell before they died, to make up for missing out on it after death, since they didn't believe in life after death, and what each person believed happened to him when he died.
SYLVIA PLATH
The Bell Jar
When I die I don't want no part of heaven.
I would not do heaven's work well.
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Youngstown", The Ghost of Tom Joad
The person who disbelieves in Hell doesn't really believe in Heaven either. He believes in oblivion. He desperately hopes that he'll cease to exist after death. He hopes he'll get away with it after all.
DWIGHT LONGENECKER
Adventures in Orthodoxy
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
Such place Eternal Justice has prepared
For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
In utter darkness, and their portion set,
As far removed from God and light of Heaven
As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Who believes in Hell? Is it a terrible place to which we sinners are condemned? Or is it a place of the imagination, fueled by fears that have built upon the superstitions and religious relics of our society?
S. KAYE SAUNDERS
Hell Exposed
Hell is the incapacity to be other than the creature one finds oneself ordinarily behaving as.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
Stories
Hell is very likely to be modernization infinitely extended.
TOM STOPPARD
The Invention of Love
Hell will not be a blot on the universe, but an eternal testimony to the ugliness of evil that will prompt wondrous appreciation of a good God's magnificence. That sounds like nonsense to Hell-hating moderns, but it makes perfect sense when we recognize and hate evil for what it is. We each have our preferred ways of sinning, whether as prostitutes, porn addicts, materialists, gossips, or the self-righteous. We all are sinners who deserve Hell.
RANDY ALCORN
If God Is Good
Some time ago a Clergyman was proving to me by arguments many and strong that hell was right, necessary and just; that it brought glory to God and good to man; that the holiness of God required it as a preventive, and the justice of God exacted it as a penalty, of sin. I listened quietly till all was over and silence fell on the reverend denunciator; he ceased, satisfied with his arguments, triumphant in the consciousness that they were crushing and unassailable. But my eyes were fixed on the fair scene without the library window, on the sacrament of earth, the visible sign of the invisible beauty, and the contrast between God's works and the Church's speech came strongly upon me. And all I found to say in answer came in a few words: "If I had not heard you mention the name of God, I should have thought you were speaking of the Devil." The words, dropped softly and meditatively, had a startling effect. Horror at the blasphemy, indignation at the unexpected result of laboured argument, struggled against a dawning feeling that there must be something wrong in a conception which laid itself open to such a blow; the short answer told more powerfully than half an hour's reasoning.
ANNIE BESANT
My Path to Atheism
Hell was not part of the original creation. Hell is God's fall-back position. Hell is something God was forced to make because people chose to rebel against him and turn against what was best for them and the purpose for which they were created.
LEE STROBEL
The Case for Faith
One smell of brimstone makes the whole world kin.
GEORGE ADE
"The Fable of How the Canny Commercial Salesman Guessed the Combination", True Bills
I fear no farther hell than that I feel.
EDWARD YOUNG
Busiris, King of Egypt: A Tragedy
Is hell a physical place? Yes and no. When people die, their soul leaves their body and they're no longer physical. The Bible says when people who are ultimately headed for hell die before Christ's return, they're separated from the presence of God but they're not in a physical place because they're not physical. In that sense, hell is probably not a location, but it's a real part of the universe. It's like you go through a door into another kind of existence.
LEE STROBEL
The Case for Faith
Hell is wanting to be somewhere different from where you are.
GENEEN ROTH
Women
In hell, sinners shall forever lay all the blame on their own wills. Hell is a rational torment by conscience.
RICHARD BAXTER
"The People Who Receive the Saints' Rest", The Saints' Everlasting Rest
Hell is being alive, and being alive is all there is.
MICHAEL MARSHALL
The Upright Man
My mother once told me she thought hell would be nothing more than being given a glimpse of God--then having it taken away, forever.
GLEN DUNCAN
Talulla Rising
We do not believe in heaven or hell, yet no statistic will ever find that without these blandishments and threats we commit more crimes of greed or violence than the faithful.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
God Is Not Great
Hell. It's one of those topics you don't bring up in polite conversation. Yet, according to a 2004 Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans believe in hell. What exactly they believe about hell is not spelled out, but you can be sure that lots of colorful ideas are out there. Unfortunately many of them originate from urban legends, spittle-spewing "fire and brimstone" preachers, and B-grade horror films (or some unfortunate combination of the three).
SEAN MCDOWELL & JONATHAN MORROW
Is God Just a Human Invention?
Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell, unless it is the sorely limited mind that has failed to describe heaven.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
God Is Not Great