Emanuel Swedenborg Quotes

Love consists in desiring to give what is our own to another and feeling his delight as our own.

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

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.

In heaven there are two distinct loves, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, in the inmost or third heaven love to the Lord, in the second or middle heaven love towards the neighbor.

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.

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.

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

Conscience is God's presence in humans.

That every man after the life in the world lives to eternity, is evident from this, that man is then spiritual, and no longer natural, and that the spiritual man, separated from the natural, remains such as he is to eternity, for man's state cannot be changed after death.

For those who trust in the Divine all things are moving towards an everlasting state of happiness, and no matter what happens at any time to them, it contributes to that state.

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.

Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding.

We are, because God is.

That all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, follows from those things which have been said and shown in the preceding article, namely, that Heaven and Hell are from the human race.

The act of exploring what the men are, and moreover the separation of the good from the evil, is visitation; and the good are then removed, and the evil are left behind.

Heaven is not located on high, but where the good of love is, and this resides within a person, wherever he or she might be.

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

God created us in such a way that our inner self is in the spiritual world and our outer self is in the physical world. This was so that the spiritual part of us, which belongs in heaven, could be planted in the physical part the way a seed is planted in the ground.

In the Christian world... it is believed that angels were created at the beginning, and that heaven was formed of them; and that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light, who, becoming rebellions, was cast down with his crew, and that this was the origin of hell.

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 essence of love is that what is ours should belong to someone else. Feeling the joy of someone else as joy within ourselves-that is loving.

For the judgment was accomplished not only upon all the men of the Christian church, but also upon all who are called Mohammedans, and, moreover, upon all the Gentiles in the whole 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.

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

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

A heavenly society is a harmony of many.

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

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.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

Love is the life of humanity.

A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothing.

Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation always precedes.

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

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

Worship does not consist in prayers and in external devotion, but in a life of kindness.

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.

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.

For in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated of in the sense of the letter.

If love is not married to wisdom (or if goodness is not married to truth), it cannot accomplish anything.

First of all it must be known who the God of heaven is, since upon that all the other things depend.

And as the divine that goes forth from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, the angels are angels and are heaven in the measure in which they receive good and truth from the Lord.

Peace has in it trust in the Lord, that He governs all things, provides all things, and leads to a good end.

This I can declare: things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world.

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

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.

One's distance from Heaven is in proportion to the measure of one's self-love.

Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do.

No one's character is completely like another'sthis infinite variety is like a mirror in which we can see the infinity of God the Creator.