Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by Emanuel Swedenborg - Page 2

All union is effected by love, and love is not love without trust.

Angels can recognize the nature of our unique essence on the basis of nothing more than a brief conversation with us. From hearing the tone of our voice angels sense what we love; and from hearing what we say, angels sense our level of understanding.

A person's life from infancy to old age is nothing else than an advance from the world towards heaven, the last stage of which is death; the actual transition from one life to the next.

Men live a moral life, either from regard to the Diving Being, or from regard to the opinion of the people in the world; and when a moral life is practised out of regard to the Divine Being, it is a spiritual life. Both appear alike in their outward form; but in their inward, they are completely different. The one saves a man, but the other does not; for he that leads a moral life out of regard to the Divine Being is led by him, but he who does so from regard to the opinion of people in the world is led by himself.

To will and not to do when there is opportunity is in reality not to will; and to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it

The more one is absorbed in so-called philosophy, the greater one's delusion and blindness.

The nature of heaven is to provide a place there for all who lead good lives, no matter what their religion may be.

Angelic happiness is in service, from service, and according to service.

It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to affirm whatever he pleases; but to be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false, this is the mark and character of intelligence.

Times of happiness, bliss, and sheer delight intensify as the higher levels of our minds are opened within us One our life on earth is over, these levels keep rising forever.

The quality of the Lord's church on earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in the world, still less how the church in process of time has turned aside from good to evil

Faith is knowing and thinking those truths: charity is willing and doing them.

I have seen a thousand times that Angels are human form, or men, for I have conversed with them as man to man, sometimes with one alone, sometimes with many in company.

Seen in its own right, a loving person's inner spirit is an angel of heaven, and while we are living in the body we are also in the company of angels, even though we are not aware of it; and once we are released from the body we join them.

Charity is like warmth in springtime or summer that causes grass, plants, and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual warmth, nothing grows.

Man knows that there is love, but he does not know what love is.

Hell and Heaven are near man, yes, in him; and every man after death goes to that Hell or heaven in which he was, or to his spirit, during his abode in the world.

Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he is capable of believing in God, and thus of being conjoined to God by faith and love, and to be conjoined to God is to live to eternity.

The life of any one can by no means be changed after death; an evil life can in no wise be converted into a good life, or an infernal into an angelic life: because every spirit, from head to foot, is of the character of his love, and therefore, of his life; and to convert this life into its opposite, would be to destroy the spirit utterly.

A man after death, is not a natural but a spiritual man; nevertheless he still appears in all respects like himself.

If we would accept heaven's life, we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs. In this way, we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven. This is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation, that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or totters until it collapses.

The end of creation is that all things may return to the Creator and be united with Him.

Adultery is an image of hell.

Angels never attack, as infernal spirits do. Angels only ward off and defend.

All religion relates to life, and the life of religion is to do good

Heaven is such that all who have lived well, of whatever religion, have a place there.

Self-love and the love of the world constitute hell.

Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face.

He who assists a poor or needy villain does evil to his neighbor...for through the assistance which he renders he...supplies him with the means of doing evil to others.

This Divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine love

The Divine of the Lord in heaven is love, for the reason that love is receptive of all things of heaven, such as peace, intelligence, wisdom and happiness

Charity itself consists in acting justly and faithfully in whatever office, business and employment a person is engaged in.

Justice is following the divine design in all that one does, and bringing back into the divine design things that have fallen away from that design. Justice is the divine design itself.

What is true is true, and what is false is false.

Man was so created by the Lord as to be able while living in the body to speak with spirits and angels, as in fact was done in the most ancient times; for, being a spirit clothed with a body, he is one with them

Charity means love towards the neighbor and compassion, for anyone who loves his neighbor as himself also has as much compassion for him in his suffering as he does for himself in his own.

So far as the Angels are recipients of that spiritual heat and light they are loves and wisdoms, not loves and wisdoms for themselves, but from the Lord.

A heavenly society is a harmony of many.

So far any one shuns evils, so far as he does good.

Sacred scripture is like a mirror in which we see God, although each in a different way.

Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation always precedes.

One can see how great the delight of heaven must be from the fact that it is the delight of everyone in heaven to share his delights and blessings with others; and as such is the character of all that are in the heavens it is clear how immeasurable is the delight of heaven.

To have dominion by religion, is to have dominion over men's souls, thus over their very spiritual life, and to use the Divine things, which are in their religion, as the means

In the world it is little comprehended what love is; and yet it is man's very life. That this is little comprehended is evident from the common saying "What is love?" What it is, is not known for the reason that love is not manifest to the understanding, and the understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven.

The inner self is as distinct from the outer self as heaven is from earth.

It can in no sense be said that heaven is outside of any one; it is within ... and a man, also, so far as he receives heaven, is a recipient, a heaven, and an angel.

Charity is to will and do what is just and right in every transaction.

Charity alone, or love and compassion, is what joins [the Lord and a person] together.

Two consorts in heaven are not two, but one angel.

Man is an organ of life, and God alone is life.

The sky is an enormous man.

Man, before he is being regenerated, does not even know that any internal man exists, much less is he acquainted with its nature and quality.

What a man thinks in his spirit in the world, that he does after his departure from the world when he becomes a spirit.

Wherefore the brain must be looked upon as the universal and general sensory and at the same time as the universal and general motory organ of the body and finally as the universal and general laboratory of the animal spirits and the blood or of the essential juices of life.

Marriages on earth--because they are the seminaries of the human race and of the angels of heaven also; because, likewise, they proceed from a spiritual origin, that is, from the marriage of good and truth; and since, in addition, the Lord's divine proceeding principally flows into conjugal love--are most holy in the estimation of the angels.

Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the man (n. 368) (Divine Love and Wisdom, 1763)

Every one may know that to will and not to do, when there is opportunity, is in reality not to will; and that to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it. Will, which stops short of action, and love, which does not do the good that is loved, is a mere thought separate from will and love, which vanishes and comes to nothing.

In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young.

There are angels that receive more interiorly the Divine that goes forth from the Lord, and others that receive it less interiorly; the former are called celestial angels, and the latter spiritual angels

The church of the Lord is spread over all the globe, and is thus universal; and all those are in it who have lived in the good of charity in accordance with their religion.