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

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.

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.

People who have intended and loved what is evil in the world intend and love what is evil in the other life, and then they no longer allow themselves to be led away from it. This is why people who are absorbed in evil are connected to hell and actually are there in spirit; and after death they crave above all to be where their evil is. So after death, it is we, not the Lord, who cast ourselves into hell.

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

Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding.

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