Quotes about hell
page 6

“The day he moved out was terrible –
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn’t a problem
But the corkscrew had gone as well.”

Wendy Cope (1945) British writer

Source: Serious Concerns

Problem

“I offered them Utopia, but they fought for the right to live in Hell.”

Mark Millar book Superman: Red Son

Source: Superman: Red Son

“If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

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.

Housing

“Why do you think there's only a single stairway to heaven, but an entire highway to hell? Because it's a lot easier to slide down then climb up, and it takes a whole lot less energy to boot.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Inferno

Thinking

“I’d had a key to the marina’s locks at one time, but I’d lost track of it when I got shot, drowned, died, got revived into a coma, haunted my friends for a while, and then woke up in Mab’s bed.

(My life. Hell’s bells.)”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Life, Time

“Go to hell and take that with you!” She shouted it right in Amelie’s face. Eve
was an exotic blaze of color against Amelie’s white fury.
And then she slapped the Founder in the face.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Color

“After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

“The dark does not weep for itself because there is no light. Rather, it accepts that it is the dark. It is said that even the gods must die." He winks. "But not without one hell of a fight.””

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine (2009), p. 365

God, Light, Fight

“What the hell are you? (Desiderius)
I'm her godfather, with a heavy emphasis on the god part. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

God, Parting

“I believe in Hell… but it's here on earth." He shakes his head. "Good people and bad people. As if it were this easy. Everyone is both of these at once.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

People

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

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.

War, Cry

“In case you were wondering, it is preferable to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven—I’ve done both.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“Beyond the reach of human rage
A drop of hell, a touch of strange…”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

Rage

“Harry Dresden: The noise was deafening, and no one could have heard me anyway as I let out my own battle cry, which I figured was worth a shot. What the hell. "I don't believe in faeries!"”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: The Dresden Files, Summer Knight (2002), Chapter 31

Cry

“And that - he pointed ahead - is the road to Hell. That's where we're going. I have always heard it was paved with good intentions, said Simon”

Cassandra Clare book 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.

“What in hell are you really made of, Howard? After all, it's only a building. It's not the combination of holy sacrament, Indian torture, and sexual ecstasy that you seem to make of it."
"Isn't it?”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Heaven would be Hell in no time if every cruel, selfish, vicious soul went to Heaven.”

Anne Rice book Memnoch the Devil

Source: Memnoch the Devil

Soul, Time, Selfishness

“Spartans… tonight we dine in Hell!”

Frank Miller book 300

Source: 300

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

Herman Melville book Moby-Dick

Source: Moby Dick

Hate, Heart

“When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

George A. Romero (1940–2017) American-Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter and editor

Source: Dawn of the Dead

Dead

“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Life, Suicide

“Never forgive, never forget. Do it once and do it right. You reap what you sow. Plans go to hell as soon as the first shot is fired. Protect and serve. Never off duty.”

Lee Child book 61 Hours

Source: 61 Hours

Forgiveness, Forgetting

“God hides the fires of hell within paradise.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

God

“The silence wasn't uncomfortable or hostile but exhausted--the quiet of people who have a great deal to think about but not a hell of a lot to say.”

Stephen King book Doctor Sleep

Source: Doctor Sleep

Hostility, People, Thinking, Silence

“What fresh hell is this?”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

"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

“As for monkeys, I would have five, and they would be named: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do Pretty Much Whatever The Hell You Want, and Expensive Attorney.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Evil

“Damn me to hell or take me to heaven, but for Gods sake, do it now….”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: The Stanislaski Brothers: Mikhail and Alex

God

“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Universe

“Blood hell, what happened to you?" - Dante
The dark wisard and I had a mild disagreement." -Viper
What sort of disagreement?" -Dante
I thought he should be dead and he disagreed." -Viper”

Alexandra Ivy (1961) American novelist

Source: When Darkness Comes

Dead

“Let's face it, writing is hell.”

William Styron (1925–2006) American novelist and essayist

“The road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed animals”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

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)

Animals

“He remembered Tessa telling him that Hell was cold, and he fought back the odd urge to smile at the memory. They'd been running for their lives, she ought to have been terrified, and there she had been, telling him about thein precise American tones.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Smile, Memory

“Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?”

Christopher Marlowe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Source: Dr. Faustus

God, Joy

“I felt a little guilty about jangling the poor bugger's brains with that evil fantasy. But what the hell? Anybody who wanders around the world saying, "Hell yes, I'm from Texas," deserves whatever happens to him.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time

World, Evil

“Being locked up is one thing, but to have no concept of confinement, to be ignorant of its terms and never understand that struggle is useless - that's what hell must be like.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Understanding

“The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons.”

Jean Renoir (1894–1979) French film director and screenwriter

Variant: The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.

Life

“Instead of going home, I drove to the library. To hell with human beings. I’d always felt safer with stories than with flesh and blood.”

Alice Hoffman book The Ice Queen

Source: The Ice Queen

Home

“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

People, Family, Family

“That's the kind of guy you'd follow to hell and back.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Guy

“Mocking a woman is like drinking too much wine. It may be fun for a short time, but the hangover is hell.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

Drink, Wine, Time

“Why the hell would I bring?" she exclaimed. All her anger turned at his presumption. It was a sign of her agitation that she'd sworn.
"Because," he said, face calm, "I can teach you how to stake a Strigoi."
"THE HELL YOU CAN," I said aloud to no one.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Anger

“My parents meant well, but the road to Hell is paved with publicity stunts.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Damned

Source: Damned

Parent

“There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering--a hell of boredom.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Suffering

“Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: The Tent

God, Universe

“Valentine Weather

Kiss me with rain on your eyelashes,
come on, let us sway together,
under the trees, and to hell with thunder.”

Edwin Morgan (1920–2010) Scottish poet and translator

Source: A Book of Lives

Kiss, Tree, Weather

“You are unnerving the hell out of me, Valkyrie."
"oh" she frowned, petting her bat fitfully " I must have misread the future for the past." she shrugged. "It happens.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: MacRieve

Past, Future

“She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

“If you are going to go through hell… I suggest you come back learning something.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Learning

“Corrupt my brother, will you? I'll see you in hell first, sir.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

“Historically inaccurate.' Adrian gestured at me with his other hand, the one not on my shoulder. "Who the hell looks at you and says 'historically inaccurate'?”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Way, Suffering, Flying, Despair

“If I can not move heaven I shall raise Hell.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“I will please shut the hell up the day you please drop the hell dead”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Dead

“Which is worse: Hell or nothing?”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one's efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

Wisdom, World, Effort

“Maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't do.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

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

“She was glad she didn’t know where it would take her. Because sometimes the only thing that
got you through hell was that you were in too deep to pull out.

[Ehlena]”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Avenged

“It's a wicked life, but what the hell, the stars ain't falling down.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Lyrics: 1962-2001

Life, Star

“But you see, the measure of hell you're able to endure is the measure of your love.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Love

“The sound of my name in his voice stopped me in midturn. I don't know how the hell he did it, but whenever he said my name, it cut through all other distractions and made me pause, as if he'd clenched me to him and kissed me.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Kiss

“There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Sleep

“Zaphod marched quickly down the passageway, nervous as hell, but trying to hide it by striding purposefully.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

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”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Variant: Because sometimes the only thing that got you through hell was that you were in too deep to pull out.
Source: Lover Avenged

“Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Religion

“each man's hell is in a different place:
mine is just up and behind
my ruined face.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

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

“Asked about the fact that Apple's iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, 'It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”

Walter Isaacson (1952) American writer and biographer

Water

“there was a reason why there was only a single stairway to heaven, but an entire highway to hell.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Illusion

“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 (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

As quoted in Philosophy on the Go (2007) by Joey Green, p. 222
General sources

Life, Fear, Thinking

“Great. I'd been dumped in Hell's waiting room.”

Karen Chance book Touch the Dark

Source: Touch the Dark

Waiting

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

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

Love, Children, Childhood

“Who the hell would attack the Steel Horse anyway? What was the thinking behind that? “Here is a bar full of psychotic killers who grow giant claws and people who pilot the undead for a living. I think I’ll go wreck the place.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

People, Thinking, Horse

“Where I come from, family's defined as those who don't screw you over a paycheck. Blood makes no difference. If you can trust them with your life and know that they'll be there come whatever hell rains down, then they're your family.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Shadows

Life, Family

“Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality except for some of the parts where she can't help but wonder what the hell she was thinking”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Thinking, Reality, Help, Parting

“Sarte was right, Hell is other people”

Tana French book The Likeness

Source: The Likeness

People

“Oh no. Hell no. I'm not asking Ma for one of her bras. That's just… wrong."… "Your woman. You do it."…" You go. We'll pay for your therapy later.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: No Place to Run

“I’ll stare the bastard in the face as he screams to God, and I’ll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I’ve done to him.”

Frank Miller book The Hard Goodbye

Source: The Hard Goodbye

God, Baby, Dead

“There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Youth, Age, Perfection

“Don't make me have to chase after you again, because there's no way in hell you can get away from me, lady.”

Johanna Lindsey (1952–2019) American writer

Source: A Heart So Wild

Way

“For where did Dante get the material for his Hell, if not from this actual world of ours?”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

World

“What awaits you? Eternal peace. Serenity. The light on the other side. What awaits me is unknown. The only certainty is that life is an eternal hell.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Life, Peace, Light

“I was safe. Uncomfortable as hell, but safe.-Bobby, RR”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

“To be closed from everything, and yet to feel, to think… This is the truth of hell, stripped of its gaudy medievalisms. This loss of contact.”

Joanne Harris book Chocolat

Source: Chocolat

Truth, Feeling, Thinking, Loss

“Ivy!' I stammered, then glared at Kisten. 'You told Ivy? Thanks a hell of a lot. Want to call my mom next?”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Every Which Way But Dead

Moms

“For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Men, World, Soul

“There is a transcendental dimension beyond language… It's just hard as hell to talk about!”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

“But why would Victor and Robert take her? And how the hell did two old men subdue a teenage girl anyway?”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Men, Girl

“If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works”

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter

"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.

“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.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

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.

Dead