Source: Serious Concerns
To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As quoted by Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest Battle (2007), Simon & Schuster, pp. 150–151 ISBN 0743281101
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Variant: If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
“After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?”
Source: Maurice
Letter to James E. Yeatman of St. Louis, Vice-President of the Western Sanitary Commission (21 May 1865). As quoted on p. 358, and footnoted on p. 562, in Sherman: A Soldier's Passion For Order https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/080938762X (2007), John F. Marszalek, Southern Illinois University Press, Chapter 15 ('Fame Tarnished')
Variant text: I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers […] it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated […] that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. […] I declare before God, as a man and a soldier, I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed and submissive before me, but would rather say—‘Go, and sin no more.’
As quoted in Sherman: Merchant of Terror, Advocate of Peace https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1455611891 (1992), Charles Edmund Vetter, Pelican Publishing, p. 289
See the Discussion Page for more extensive sourcing information.
1860s, 1865, Letter to James E. Yeatman (May 1865)
Context: I confess without shame that I am tired & sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. Even success, the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies […] It is only those who have not heard a shot, nor heard the shrills & groans of the wounded & lacerated (friend or foe) that cry aloud for more blood & more vengeance, more desolation & so help me God as a man & soldier I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed & submissive before me but will say ‘Go sin no more.
“In case you were wondering, it is preferable to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven—I’ve done both.”
Source: City of Heavenly Fire
Alex Lightwood, Simon Lewis, and the Seelie Queen, pg. 353-354
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: There,' he said, pointing to the leafy tunnel. 'That goes farther into Faerie. And that'--he pointed ahead--'is the road to Hell. That's where we're going.'
'I always heard it was paved with good intentions,' said Simon.
'Place your feet upon the way and find out, Daylighter,' said the Queen.
“Heaven would be Hell in no time if every cruel, selfish, vicious soul went to Heaven.”
Source: Memnoch the Devil
“When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”
Source: Dawn of the Dead
"If the doorbell rang in her apartment, she would say, 'What fresh hell can this be?' — and it wasn't funny; she meant it." You might as well live: the life and times of Dorothy Parker, John Keats (Simon Schuster, 1970, p124). Often quoted as "What fresh hell is this?" as in the title of the 1987 biography by Marion Meade, "Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?".
Variant: What fresh hell can this be?
Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker
“Damn me to hell or take me to heaven, but for Gods sake, do it now….”
Source: The Stanislaski Brothers: Mikhail and Alex
“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
Source: When Darkness Comes
“The road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed animals”
Variant: All right. Have it your own way. Road to hell paved with unbought stuffed dogs. Not my fault.
Source: The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Source: Clockwork Angel
Source: Dr. Faustus
Source: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
“The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons.”
Variant: The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.
Source: Spirit Bound
“There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering--a hell of boredom.”
Source: Les Misérables
“Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.”
Source: The Tent
“She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still”
“If you are going to go through hell… I suggest you come back learning something.”
“I will please shut the hell up the day you please drop the hell dead”
Source: Running with Scissors
Source: The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
Variant: The voice says, maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't do. The things you don't finish.
Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 28
“It's a wicked life, but what the hell, the stars ain't falling down.”
Source: Lyrics: 1962-2001
“But you see, the measure of hell you're able to endure is the measure of your love.”
Source: Atlas Shrugged
Source: Magic Slays
Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
“Sometimes the only thing that got you through hell was that you were in too deep to pull out”
Variant: Because sometimes the only thing that got you through hell was that you were in too deep to pull out.
Source: Lover Avenged
Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“each man's hell is in a different place:
mine is just up and behind
my ruined face.”
Variant: each man's hell is in a different
place: mine is just up and
behind
my ruined
face.
--from Let's Make a Deal
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
“there was a reason why there was only a single stairway to heaven, but an entire highway to hell.”
Source: Illusion
As quoted in Philosophy on the Go (2007) by Joey Green, p. 222
General sources
“Great. I'd been dumped in Hell's waiting room.”
Source: Touch the Dark
Quoted in the Manchester Guardian (31 December 1977), and Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) https://web.archive.org/web/20000709051930/http://www.bartleby.com/63/90/4790.html edited by James B. Simpson; Says Who?: A Guide To The Quotations Of The Century (1988) by Jonathon Green, p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=xUwOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CK0BEOgBMBk and The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1989), p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=bs0J36MpieIC&pg=PA45&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22When%20childhood%20dies%2C%20its%20corpses%20are%20called%20adults%22&f=false
Source: Magic Bleeds
Source: A Heart So Wild
“For where did Dante get the material for his Hell, if not from this actual world of ours?”
Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead
“I was safe. Uncomfortable as hell, but safe.-Bobby, RR”
“There is a transcendental dimension beyond language… It's just hard as hell to talk about!”
“If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works”
"Looking Back on U.S.A.," New York Times, Oct 25 1959
Context: If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works, with all the misconceptions, the omissions, the failures that any finished work of art implies.
Preface
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Context: The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
“…to emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on heaven is to create hell.”
Variant: To concentrate on heaven is to create hell.
Source: Skinny Legs and All (1990)
“Revenge is the sweetest morsel to the mouth, that ever was cooked in hell.”
The Heart of Midlothian', Ch. 30 (1818).
Source: The Heart of Mid-Lothian
“I know this woman.”
“Who the hell is she?”
He stared both his brothers down. “She’s mine.”
Source: No Place to Run
“Where the hell do you get your nerve?
From a Cracker Jack box.”
Source: Wicked Pleasure
“Wasnt it Startre who said hell was eternity spent in a room with your friends?”
Source: The Forbidden Game
Source: Magic Bleeds
Source: Brain Droppings
