Quotes About Devils And Angels

“It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing-they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.”

— Stephen Fry

“There are 500 reasons I write for children ... Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics ... They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff ... They don't expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.”

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Children have no use for psychology. They detest sociology. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish allusions.”

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

“God, in his wisdom, sent us his angels, to whisper our names on the wind. God, in his anger, released his devils, to pester our souls to the end.”

— Sam Cheever

“Why,' I said, quite surprised by my own eloquence in inventing all this stuff, 'it happens every day. The old old story. Boys and girls fall in love, that is, they are driven mad and go blind and deaf and see each other not as human animals with comic noses and bandy legs and voices like frogs, but as angels so full of shining goodness that like hollow turnips with candles put into them, they seem miracles of beauty. And the next minute the candles shoot out sparks and burn their eyes. And they seem to each other like devils, full of spite and cruelty. And they will drive each other mad unless they have grown some imagination. Even enough to laugh.”

— Joyce Cary

“She made a creche outside the Inn. The natives thought it was wonderful, and Sister Honey was gratified by their numbers.
Why have the devils with wings come to mock at the poor baby?' asked the children, pointing to the angels.
The baby is the Number One Lord Jesus Christ,' Ayah told them.
But he hasn't any clothes on! Aren't they going to give Him anything? Not a little red robe? Not a bit of melted butter?'
This is His Mother,' said Ayah, showing them the little porcelain Virgin in blue and white and pink. 'He is her child.'
That isn't true,' said the women, measuring the baby with their eyes. 'He's too big to be possible. Probably He's a dragon, an evil spirit in the shape of a child, and presently He'll eat up the woman.”

— Rumer Godden

“Only I was capable of saving her now, and that, as far as anyone could argue, may have made me worse than all the devils and the demons, but it also, more accurately, made me better than all the angels and gods.”

— Alistair Cross

“Brandy, which is fallen and accursed wine, as devils are fallen and accursed angels ...
("The Wondersmith")”

— Fitz-James O'Brien

“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”

— John Steinbeck

“I admit that I ain't no angel, I admit that I ain't no saint
I'm selfish and I'm cruel and I'm blind. If I exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave too. When they leave they're so hard to find ...”

— Tom Waits

“The masculine voice was low but clear, capturing the senses, running along the back of her neck like a caress, making her shiver in delight. Artemis very much feared she was gaping. The Duke of Wakefield had a voice to make angels-or devils-weep. It wasn't the type of male voice currently admired-for the high, unnatural voice of the musico was the rage of London at the moment-but his was the sort of voice that would always seduce the ear. Sure and strong, with a vibrating masculinity on the low notes. She could sit and listen to a voice like this for hours.”

— Elizabeth Hoyt

“We see it was the Lord's purpose to deliver nothing in his sacred oracles which we might not learn for edification. Therefore, instead of dwelling on superfluous matters, let it be sufficient for us briefly to hold, with regard to the nature of devils, that at their first creation they were the angels of God, but by revolting they both ruined themselves, and became the instruments of perdition to others.”

— John Calvin

“There is a certain solid use in fools. It is not so much that they rush in where angels fear to tread, but rather that they let out what devils intend to do.”

— G.K. Chesterton

“He would have admired one of those fantastic visions, those magic apparitions one sometimes sees in the great theaters of Europe, in which the deafening melodies of an orchestra are made to appear among a deluge of light, a torrent of oriental diamonds and gold surrounded by a diaphanous mist, from which a deity, a sylph comes forward, her feet barely touching the floor encircled and accompanied by a luminous cloud. In her wake flowers shoot forth, a dance bursts out, harmonies awaken, and choirs of devils, nymphs, satyrs, spirits, country maidens, angels, and shepherds dance, shake tambourines gesticulate wildly, and lay tribute at the goddess's feet.”

— José Rizal

“[Saint Anthony] said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. When asked how he could tell the difference, the saint said that you can only tell which is which by the way you feel after the creature has left your company.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“All thy passions in the end became virtues, and all thy devils, angels.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“The adult world may seem a cold and empty place, with no fairies and no Father Christmas, no Toyland or Narnia, no Happy Hunting Ground where mourned pets go, and no angels - guardian or garden variety. But there are also no devils, no hellfire, no wicked witches, no ghosts, no haunted houses, no daemonic possession, no bogeymen or ogres. Yes, Teddy and Dolly turn out not to be really alive. But there are warm, live, speaking, thinking, adult bedf ellows to hold, and many of us find it a more rewarding kind of love than the childish affection for stuffed toys, however soft and cuddly they may be.”

— Richard Dawkins

“The city of angels? It's the city of devils. The city of smiling cobras.”

— Sean Young

“His life rushes onward in such torrential rhythm that ... only angels and devils can catch the tempo of it.”

— Anaïs Nin

“I've always said it's interesting to watch devils cry when angels want to stab you in the back. I like that mixture.”

— Norman Reedus

“It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God only.”

— William Blake

“No. He says when you're dealing with any kids of supernatural beings, Gods and Devils and angels, you tend to think about them like hurricanes or earthquakes, some kind of mindless force of nature. But if they're real, then they have minds. They know your name. So even reading about the Devil tips him off, he knows instantly he's being read about and that you're somebody he may have to deal with. And I'm thinking what you did in Vegas went way, way beyond that."
"What 'I' did? What about us? We were both there."
"Yeah but I cut my hair since then. They probably think that was a different guy.”

— David Wong

“Don't take my devils away, because my angels may flee too”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

“Angels often flee from people who scream too loudly-they know at such moments how close the man or woman is to us, and they feel outnumbered. For devils rush in to attend such outcries.”

— Norman Mailer

“Your body is woven
from the light of heaven.
Are you aware
that its purity and swiftness
is the envy of angels
and its courage
keeps even devils away.”

— Rumi

“Children don t read to find their identity to free themselves from guilt to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology ... They still believe in God the family angels devils witches goblins logic clarity punctuation and other such obsolete stuff ... When a book is boring they yawn openly. They don t expect their writer to redeem humanity but leave to adults such childish illusions.”

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Leonie Barrow's voice was quiet but clear. With Marechal's eyes on her, she said, "Cabal is more dangerous then you can believe, Count. Both the angels and the devils fear him. He's a monster, but an evenhanded one. I know he is capable of the most appalling acts of evil." Her glance moved to Cabal, who was listening dispassionately. "I believe he is also capable of great good. But to predict which he will do next isn't easy or safe."
Marechal grimaced. "What is your association with this man? Public relations or something?"
"I loathe him," she said with sudden venom. The, more quietly, "And I admire him. You're right; he didn't have to come back. He's taken a big risk, but I know he's taken bigger. I can't tell you whether he's a monster or playing the hero right now, but I know one thing. You made the biggest mistake of your life when you made an enemy of him.”

— Jonathan L. Howard

“Think it not a light matter to doubt Jehovah. Remember, it is a sin; and not a little sin either, but in the highest degree criminal. The angels never doubted Him, nor the devils either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonour Him by unbelief, and tarnish His honour by mistrust.”

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“To make sure that my blasphemy is thoroughly expressed, I hereby state my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition, that there is no evidence for the existence of any god(s), that devils, demons, angels and saints are myths, that there is no life after death, heaven nor hell, that the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and that the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and derision.”

— James Randi

“We should take heed of pride; it is a sin that turned angels into devils.”

— Matthew Henry

“The angels and the devils are definitely within us, not within the machines we use.”

— Michael Dertouzos

“The fiend with all his comrades Fell then from heaven above, Through as long as three nights and days, The angels form heaven into hell; And them all the Lord transformed to devils, Because they his deed and word Would not revere.”

— Caedmon

“The Bible must be the invention either of good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God. However, it was not written by good men, because good men would not tell lies by saying 'Thus saith the Lord;' it was not written by bad men because they would not write about doing good duty, while condemning sin, and themselves to hell; thus, it must be written by divine inspiration”

— Charles Wesley

“[Believers] have joy and comfort-that joy that angels cannot give, and devils cannot take.”

— Christopher Fowler

“O miserable man, what a deformed monster has sin made you! God made you "little lower than the angels"; sin has made you little better than the devils”

— Joseph Alleine

“He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.”

— Khalil Gibran

“The body's a mirror of heaven: Its energies make angels jealous. Our purity astounds seraphim. Devils shiver at our nerve.”

— Rumi

“I put the Scriptures above all the sayings of the fathers, angels, men and devils. Here I take my stand.”

— Martin Luther

“The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life: your memories, your attachments.
They burn them all away, but they're not punishing you, they're freeing your soul.
If you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away.
If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth.”

— Meister Eckhart

“The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

“If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.”

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“We are on the earth, and they tell us of heaven; we are human beings, and they tell us of angels and devils; we are matter, and they tell us of spirit; we have five senses whereby to admit truths, and a reasoning faculty by which to build our belief upon them; and they tell us of dreams dreamed thousands of years ago, which our experience flatly contradicts.”

— Frances Wright

“In best understandings, sin began, Angels sinned first, then Devils, and then Man.”

— John Donne

“Men are sponges, which, to pour out, receive;
Who know false play, rather than lose, deceive.
For in best understandings sin began,
Angels sinn'd first, then devils, and then man.
Only perchance beasts sin not ; wretched we
Are beasts in all but white integrity.”

— John Donne

“The energy of devils and angels is the same energy; it's how you use it. It's fuel. There is a saying: If you scare all your devils away, the angels will go away with them. You know, the halo and the horns are the same thing. I mean it's OK to be spiritually horny - that's what creative genius is all about. Geniuses don't have time to think about how it's going to be received ... they don't have time to think whether people like it or not, is it morally right, will God like it?”

— Carlos Santana

“If there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress
if there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the death-bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of ill.”

— Charles Caleb Colton

“If my devils are to leave me, I'm afraid my angels will take flight as well.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

“The sermon which does not lead to Christ, or of which Jesus Christ is not the top and the bottom, is a sort of sermon that will make the devils in hell laugh, but make the angels of God weep.”

— Charles Spurgeon

“There is no promise of love and light or visions of any kind - no angels, no devils. Nothing happens: it is absolutely boring. Sometimes you feel silly. One often asks the question, "Who is kidding whom? Am I on to something or not?" You are not on to something. Traveling the path means you get off everything, there is no place to perch. Sit and feel your breath, be with it.”

— Chogyam Trungpa

“Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification.”

— William Blake