Emanuel Swedenborg Quotations

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

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

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.

Moreover, no one is judged from the natural man, thus not so long as he lives in the natural world, for man is then in a natural body; but everyone is judged in the spiritual man, and therefore when he comes into the spiritual world, for man is then in a spiritual body.

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 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

I am well aware that many will say that no one can possibly speak with spirits and angels so long as he lives in the body; and many will say that it is all fancy, others that I relate such things in order to gain credence, and others will make other objections.

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.

For the spiritual sense of the Word treats everywhere of the spiritual world, that is, of the state of the church in the heavens, as well as in the earth; hence the Word is spiritual and Divine.

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.

Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation always precedes.

True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.

But by all this I am not deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt.

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

He who is in evil, is also in the punishment of evil.

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

I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord.

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.

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.

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.

In the spiritual body moreover, man appears such as he is with respect to love and faith, for everyone in the spiritual world is the effigy of his own love, not only as to the face and the body, but also as to the speech and the actions.

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

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.

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

The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they constitute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them.

The human race is the basis on which heaven is founded, is because man was last created, and that which is last created is the basis of all that precedes.

Without such a Life, the Word as to the letter is dead.

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

True charity is the desire to be useful to others without thought of recompense

The human race is the basis on which heaven is founded.

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

Our love is our life itself. What our love is like determines how we live and therefore everything about what we are as human beings.

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.

All our longings for what is loving and true reach out into heaven. They put us in touch with angels who are feeling the same way and unite us with them.

Love means setting aside walls, fences, and unlocking doors and saying 'Yes.' One can be in paradise by simply saying 'yes' to this moment.

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

Conscience is God's presence in humans.

Every single moment of a person's life, both of the understanding and of the will, is a new beginning.

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.

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.

We are all spirits inwardly. This is what's alive in the body, not the body on its own.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

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.

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.

We are, because God is.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Anyone can see that intending and not acting when we can is not really intending, and loving and not doing good when we can is not really loving.

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.

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.

Love comes into being through useful service to others.

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.

Everything good or true that the angels inspire in us is God's, so God is constantly talking to us. He talks very differently, though, to one person than to another.

Love is the life of humanity.

The divine essence itself is love and wisdom.

A life of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worship.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Faith is knowing and thinking truths. Charity is willing and doing them.

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

Man knows that love is, but not what it is.

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

A heavenly society is a harmony of many.

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

Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding.

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

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.

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.

Every man is received in heaven who receives heaven in himself while in the world, and he is excluded who does not.

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.

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.

All in heaven take joy in sharing their delights and blessings with others.

A person who knows all that is good and all that is true---as much as can be known---but does not resist evils, knows nothing.

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.

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

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

People are unaware that spirits even exist, let alone that angels are present with them.

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

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

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.

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

God loves every one of us but cannot directly benefit us; he can benefit us only indirectly through each other. For this reason he inspires us with his love

We all have spirits present with us who are feeling the way we are.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

The activity of love and faith is what makes heaven.

True wisdom is seeing what is beneficial to your eternal life, and managing your life according to that. You do this when you not only know these things and grasp them with your understanding, but also will and do them.

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

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