Quotes about heaven
page 2

“Our father who art in heaven
Stay there
And we will stay here on earth
Which is sometimes so pretty”

Jacques Prevért (1900–1977) French poet, screenwriter

Pater Noster

“It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man. Any existing distinction between the wise and the stupid, between the rich and the poor, comes down to a matter of education.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University

Gakumon no Susume [An Encouragement of Learning] (1872–1876).

Stupidity, Education

“O, human love! thou spirit given,
On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!”

Edgar Allan Poe Tamerlane

"Tamerlane", l. 177 (1827).

Love, Hope

“If any man could arrive at the exterior limit, or take the wings of a bird and fly upward, like a fish who puts his head out and sees the world, he would see a world beyond; and, if the nature of man could sustain this sight, he would acknowledge that this was the place of the true heaven and the true light and the true stars. For this earth, and the stones, and the entire region which surrounds us, are spoilt and corroded…”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Plato, Phaedo

World, Star, Nature, Bird

“To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth, to secure life and fortune for the people, to continue the lost teachings of past sages, and to establish peace for all future generations.”

Zhang Zai (1020–1077) Chinese philosopher

Complete Works of Master Zhang, "Supplements to Reflections on Things at Hand", as quoted in Wang Chunyong's Famous Chinese Sayings Quoted by Wen Jiabao, trans. Chan Sin-wai (Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Co., 2009), p. 10

Life, People, Peace, Past

“Since I think just in pictures it's sort of hard to think about abstract concepts so I have to have visual images like for example when I was a child I didn't really understand some of the stuff in the Lord's Prayer and y'know when it talks about "the power and the glory"… and I thought "electrical high tension lines, circular rainbow." "Thou art in Heaven"; that didn't make any sense to me but another autistic person says "Well I always pictured God up in Heaven with an easel."”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

First Person (TV series) Episode 1 "Stairway to Heaven" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Person_(TV_series)#Season_1

God, Art, Understanding, Thinking

“[Man] is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"As I Please," Tribune (3 March 1944) http://alexpeak.com/twr/orwell/quotes/ As I Please (1943–1947)

Hell, Evil

“Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike. Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

God, Books, Religion, Angels

“One artist sees himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world; he hoists onto his shoulders the task of creating this world, of peopling it and of bearing the all-embracing responsibility for it; but he crumples beneath it, for a mortal genius is not capable of bearing such a burden. Just as man in general, having declared himself the centre of existence, has not succeeded in creating a balanced spiritual system. And if misfortune overtakes him, he casts the blame upon the age-long disharmony of the world, upon the complexity of today's ruptured soul, or upon the stupidity of the public.
Another artist, recognizing a higher power above, gladly works as a humble apprentice beneath God's heaven; then, however, his responsbility for everything that is written or drawn, for the souls which perceive his work, is more exacting than ever. But, in return, it is not he who has created this world, not he who directs it, there is no doubt as to its foundations; the artist has merely to be more keenly aware than others of the harmony of the world, of the beauty and ugliness of the human contribution to it, and to communicate this acutely to his fellow-men. And in misfortune, and even at the depths of existence — in destitution, in prison, in sickness — his sense of stable harmony never deserts him.
But all the irrationality of art, its dazzling turns, its unpredictable discoveries, its shattering influence on human beings — they are too full of magic to be exhausted by this artist's vision of the world, by his artistic conception or by the work of his unworthy fingers.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Nobel lecture (1970)

Men, God, People, Age

“Slowly the joy of flower and bird
Did like a tide withdraw;
And in the heaven a silent star
Smiled on me, infinitely far.”

Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) British poet

" The Chantry Of The Cherubim http://www.bartleby.com/236/219.html" in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917) by D. H. S. Nicholson. Context: p>I walk as one unclothed of flesh, I wash my spirit clean; I see old miracles afresh, And wonders yet unseen. I will not leave Thee till Thou give Some word whereby my soul may live!I listened — but no voice I heard; I looked — no likeness saw; Slowly the joy of flower and bird Did like a tide withdraw; And in the heaven a silent star Smiled on me, infinitely far.</p

Smile, Star, Flowers, Bird

“Out in the garden
There's half of a heaven,
And we're only bluffing.
We're not ones for busting through walls,
But they've told us
Unless we can prove
That we're doing it,
We can't have it all.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Dreaming (1982)

“Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse.”

Johannes Kepler Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo

Translated by Edward Rosen, Kepler's Conversation with Galileo's Sidereal Messenger (1965), p. 39
Unsourced variant translation: Provide ships or sails fit for the winds of heaven, and some will brave even that great void.
Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo (1610)
Context: It is not improbable, I must point out, that there are inhabitants not only on the moon but on Jupiter too, or (as was delightfully remarked at a recent gathering of certain philosophers) that those areas are now being unveiled for the first time. But as soon as somebody demonstrates the art of flying, settlers from our species of man will not be lacking. Who would once have thought that the crossing of the wide ocean was calmer and safer than of the narrow Adriatic Sea, Baltic Sea, or English Channel? Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse. Therefore, for the sake of those who, as it were, will presently be on hand to attempt this voyage, let us establish the astronomy, Galileo, you of Jupiter, and me of the moon.

“Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Gitanjali http://www.spiritualbee.com/gitanjali-poems-of-tagore/ (1912) Context: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Way, Freedom, Dead, Country

“As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.”

Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism

Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Context: The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

“The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things.”

Laozi book Tao Te Ching

Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as interpreted by Ursula K. LeGuin (1998)
Context: The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things.
So the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.

Way

“Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.”

Francis of Assisi Canticle of the Sun

Canticle of the Sun

Beauty, Star, Sister

“There is no Heaven, no Swarga, no Hell, no rebirth, no reincarnation and no immortality. The only thing that is true is that a man is born, he lives and he dies. Therefore, he should live his life properly.”

C. V. Raman (1888–1970) Indian physicist

In a public lecture at Bangalore in 1934, from [Singh, R, 2010, Letters to the Editor: Indian scientists vs. science and religion, http://www.scienceandculture-isna.org/july-aug10/Letter%20to%20editors.pdf, Science and Culture, 76, 7-8, 206]

Life, Hell

“Our souls are tied across universes,
there is unbroken continuity,
you see the love is more powerful than death,
so let the winds of the heavens to dance with you
and give your smile at the other's welcome”

Alexis Karpouzos movie We are the conversation

The film ''We are the conversation'', gathers together the most famous poems and poets from all over the world. It is a celebration of our linguistic diversity and a reminder of our commonalities and the fundamental role verbal art plays in human life around the world.
Alexis karpouzos

“In our brief life,
so many roads,
so many miracles
and blessings and glories,
but also so many curses and denials,
grief and contempt,
continuous waves on the planetary seas
that come and go,
and they crawl us into the vast heavens,
n that quiet rhythm universe
listen to your heart beat.”

Alexis Karpouzos movie We are the conversation

“Before Adam there were Heaven and Hell. Sin or no sin, the devil was destined to go in hell no matter how hard he tried to believe in God.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Hell

“Do good deeds while you are still alive. Otherwise, there will be no VIP place for you in heaven.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Heaven must be just like this”

Tom DeLonge (1975) American rock musician

da I-Empire)

“The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven—
All's right with the world!”

Robert Browning Pippa Passes

Part I, line 221.
Source: Pippa Passes (1841)

God, World, Spring

“I hold my peace, sir? no;
No, I will speak as liberal as the north;
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

Men, Peace, Cry

“I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

World, Feeling, Thinking, Suffering

“Thank heaven I don't inherit God from anybody! I am free to make mine up as I wish Him. He's kind and sympathetic and imaginative and forgiving and understanding - and He has a sense of humor.”

Jean Webster (1876–1916) American novelist

God, Imagination, Forgiveness, Understanding

“We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us.”

Simone Weil book Waiting for God

Source: Waiting for God

God, Universe

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

23 February 1944 http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/annefrank.html (1942 - 1944) Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

God, Happiness, People, Beauty

“I don't want to die now!" he yelled. "I've still got a headache! I don't want to go to heaven with a headache, I'd be all cross and wouldn't enjoy it!”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“animals never worry about Heaven or Hell. neither do I. maybe that's why we get along”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

Hell, Animals

“Some imagine the difference between heaven and hell to be a matter of geography. Not so. The difference is much more evident in the individuals who dwell there.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Keys to the Demon Prison

Imagination, Hell

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Beauty, Peaceful

“I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense…”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Journal entry (1896-11-17), from the National Trust collection.
Source: The Complete Tales

World, Knowledge, Sense, Childhood

“Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“Lately I have come to believe that the principle difference between Heaven and Hell is the company you keep there….”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Variant: The principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.

Hell

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!”

William Wordsworth book The Prelude

Bk. XI, l. 108.
Source: The Prelude (1799-1805)

“Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own read.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

Way, Reading

“Holy angel, in Heaven blessed,
My spirit longs with thee to rest”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

Source: The Phantom of the Opera

Angels

“What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

World, Childhood

“Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Christ

“O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head
As is a winged messenger of heaven”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

Art, Angels, Night

“Will smiled the way Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Smile, Way

“The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. / What matter where, if I be still the same…”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

i.254-255
Paradise Lost (1667)
Variant: The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
Source: Paradise Lost: Books 1-2

Hell

“When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown!”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Life Is Worth Living

Parent

“Thoughts are free and subject to no rule. On them rests the freedom of man, and they tower above the light of nature… create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy from which new arts flow.”

Paracelsus (1493–1541) Swiss physician and alchemist

Art, Nature, Freedom, Light

“It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes.
This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographers”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“The tree that would grow to heaven must send its roots to hell.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Hell, Tree

“Every one who has ever built anywhere a "new heaven" first found the power thereto in his own hell.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book On the Genealogy of Morality

Essay 3, Aphorism 10
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
Variant: Whoever, at any time, has undertaken to build a new heaven has found the strength for it in his own hell...

Hell

“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below, and the saints above, for love is heaven, and heaven is love.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto III, stanza 2.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
Context: In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;
In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;
In halls, in gay attire is seen;
In hamlets, dances on the green.
Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,
And men below, and saints above;
For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Love, Men

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

People

“Heaven is comfort, but it's still not living.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“It was a light that shone over our faces, our wounds and scars. It was a light so brilliant and white it could have been beamed from heaven, and Brian and I could have been angels, basking in it. But it wasn’t, and we weren’t.”

Scott Heim book Mysterious Skin

Source: Mysterious Skin

Angels, Light

“good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere”

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) American author, editor, publisher, and businesswoman

Girl, For women

“If people thought a quarter of what they speak, this world would be heaven.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book Marina

Source: Marina

People, World

“O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“Damien has died and gone straight to gay boy heaven,' Shaunee said…”

P. C. Cast (1960) American writer

Boy

“Be careful what you ask of Heaven; it might be granted.”

Isabel Allende book The Infinite Plan

Source: The Infinite Plan

“I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love, Hell

“Reading in bed can be heaven, assuming you can get just the right amount of light on the page and aren't prone to spilling your coffee or cognac on the sheets.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Coffee, Light, Reading

“Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

World, Housing

“Heaven has no taste."
"Now-"
"And not one single sushi restaurant."
A look of pain crossed the angel's suddenly very serious face.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Pain, Angels

“Parting is all we know of Heaven,
and all we need of Hell.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Hell, Parting

“Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.”

Arthur Miller The Crucible

Source: The Crucible

God, Beauty

“I go and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

Hell

“O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love, Hell

“This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

Soul

“And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run out ahead of Him.”

Corrie ten Boom book The Hiding Place

Source: The Hiding Place

“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why God? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, "There's just something about you that pisses me off".”

Stephen King Storm of the Century

Storm of the Century (1999)
Source: Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay

Life, God, Family

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?”

Robert Browning Men and Women

"Andrea del Sarto", line 98.
Men and Women (1855)
Source: Men and Women and Other Poems

Inspirational, For Men

“this satsangh?’ You just drop that. You don’t have to get anything, okay? You don’t have to benefit from this. Just waste half a day and go. (Laughter) Really. ‘What should I get out of my meditation?’ Nothing. Just waste fifteen-twenty minutes every day. So do not meditate; just learn to waste some time. Nothing needs to happen. This is not about resting; this is not about becoming healthy; this is not about becoming enlightened; this is not about reaching heaven. All this is just wasting time. When you are not trying to be anything, not trying to get anywhere, you are being.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Himalayan Lust

Laughter, Learning, Time

“And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes Heaven drowsy with the harmony.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

Love, God

“Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It's as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

Marriage

“I died. I died and someone made a clerical error and I am in Heaven.”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: Summer Knight

Error

“I don't like to commit myself about Heaven and Hell, you see, I have friends in both places.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Hell

“Words are only painted fire, a look is the fire itself. She gave that look, and carried it away to the treasury of heaven, where all things that are divine belong.”

Mark Twain book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Painting

“When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.”

Christopher Morley book Parnassus on Wheels

Variant: When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.
Source: Parnassus on Wheels

Love, Life, Friendship, Books

“When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis (1897)

Soul, Sun

“In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, Heaven knows,
Anything goes.”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

"Anything Goes"; there are also variants on this line which read "But now, God knows,
Anything goes", but the most common renditions are done with "Heaven knows"
Anything Goes (1934)

“Your Bracelet," she said. "Acheronta movebo.' It doesn't mean 'Thus always to tyrants.' That's 'sic semper tyrannis.' This is from Virgil. 'Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.' If I cannot move Heaven, I will raise Hell.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Hell

“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven.

As translated by Michael Hamburger”

Friedrich Hölderlin book Hyperion

Hyperion
Original: (de) Immerhin hat das den Staat zur Hölle gemacht, daß ihn der Mensch zu seinem Himmel machen wollte.

Hell

“… For a lifetime was but a moment in that place, and each man dreams his own heaven.

And in the darkness David closed his eyes, as all that was lost was found again.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

Dreams

“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

Death

“Sometimes I think heaven must be one continuous unexhausted reading.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Source: Selected Letters

Thinking, Reading

“If you concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens… Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Life, Happiness, Star

“A sure way of retaining the grace of heaven is to disregard outward appearances, and diligently to cultivate such things as foster amendment of life and fervour of soul, rather than to cultivate those qualities that seem most popular.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) German canon regular

Source: The Inner Life

Life, Way, Soul, Appearance

“They say that in the second before our death, each of us understands the real reason for our existence, and out of that moment, heaven or hell is born.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Death, Hell, Understanding

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Recollection by Gilbert J. Greene, quoted in The Speaking Oak (1902) by Ferdinand C. Iglehart and Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln (1917) by Ervin S. Chapman
Posthumous attributions

God

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Dogs

“This wasn't food - it was what food became if it had been good and gone to food heaven.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Source: The Wee Free Men

Food