To a child images of hell-fire and gnashing of teeth are actually very real; they’re not metaphorical at all. Jill Mytton, former child of Exclusive Brethren, interview Richard Dawkins
If there is a worse place than Hell I am in it. Abraham Lincoln
Hell, madam, is to love no more. George Bernanos, 1888-1948, French novelist & essayist
It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred,
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell ... Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting
We dodge the consequence by keeping it all in soft focus consoling ourselves with the thought that hellfire and brimstone are mere conceits. David Lewis, Divine Evil
The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality. Dante
Abandon all hope, you who enter! Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321, Divina Commedia Inferno canto 3
Which meant I might be facing eternity in a place called Hell. But then again at least I could still smoke pot and go to gay bars. Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends: Fundamentalist Christianity
Visions of Hell proliferate throughout the historical record. Kathryn Gin, Princeton University
There are instances of people going insane essentially over this fear that they are damned. Kathryn Gin
The fact that the majority of Americans believe in Hell is significant: psychologically speaking, I do think the notion of Hell continues to hold some power over Americans. Kathryn Ginn, Princeton University
The traditional concept of predestination is that everyone is depraved, everyone is worthy of Hell. God alone decides who is saved and who is damned. Kathryn Ginn
Threatening Children with Hell is Fun! Author unknown
It’s kind of like a city built underground. This is an horrific kind of city. This is a city of punishment. Dr Marvin Meyer, Chapman University
Doubtless the idea of Tartarus had a huge impact on the Christian ideal of Hell. Dr Marvin Mayer
Hades is the realm of the dead, and the Greek people believed that when they died they went down into Hades. Hades most likely could be seen as a kind of literal place underground. Dr Marvin Meyer
The Greeks believed that around their country there were several places that were gateways or portals to the dead. Dr Marvin Meyer
Those who call it [Hell] Christian pornography may not be far from the mark. Dennis MacDonald, Claremont School of Theology
I think it would be difficult to overestimate how important fear of Hell is for some people. Dennis MacDonald
Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell. Charles Bukowski
I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse. Isaac Asimov
Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person. Tennessee Williams
Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. Milton Friedman
Let me go to hell, that’s all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss. Samuel Beckett
Eskimo: If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?
Priest: No, not if you did not know.
Eskimo: Then why did you tell me? Annie Dillard
If I do not return to the pulpit this weekend, millions of people will go to hell. Jimmy Swaggart
Every man is his own hell. H L Mencken
It is Hell, of course, that makes priests powerful, not Heaven, for after thousands of years of so-called civilization fear remains the one common denominator of mankind. H L Mencken
One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in hell. W H Auden
I think hell’s a real place where real people spend a real eternity. Jerry Falwell
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
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits. William S Burroughs
I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. William Blake
A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell. Thomas Fuller
After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven? E M Forster, Maurice
Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
I’m not interested in absolute moral judgments. Just think of what it means to be a good man or a bad one. What, after all, is the measure of difference? The good guy may be 65% good and 35% bad – that’s a very good guy. The average decent fellow might be 54% good, 46% bad – and the average mean spirit is the reverse. So say I’m 60% bad and 40% good – for that, must I suffer eternal punishment?
Heaven and Hell make no sense if the majority of humans are a complex mixture of good and evil. There’s no reason to receive a reward if you’re 57/43 – why sit around forever in an elevated version of Club Med? That’s almost impossible to contemplate. Norman Mailer, On God: An Uncommon Conversation
Hell is very likely to be modernisation infinitely extended. Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love
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