Julian Tan > Julian's Quotes

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Though I obviously have no proof of this, the one aspect of life that seems clear to me is that good people do whatever they believe is the right thing to do. Being virtuous is hard, not easy. The idea of doing good things simply because you're good seems like a zero-sum game; I'm not even sure those actions would still qualify as 'good,' since they'd merely be a function of normal behavior. Regardless of what kind of god you believe in--a loving god, a vengeful god, a capricious god, a snooty beret-wearing French god, or whatever--one has to assume that you can't be penalized for doing the things you believe to be truly righteous and just. Certainly, this creates some pretty glaring problems: Hitler may have thought he was serving God. Stalin may have thought he was serving God (or something vaguely similar). I'm certain Osama bin Laden was positive he was serving God. It's not hard to fathom that all of those maniacs were certain that what they were doing was right. Meanwhile, I constantly do things that I know are wrong; they're not on the same scale as incinerating Jews or blowing up skyscrapers, but my motivations might be worse. I have looked directly into the eyes of a woman I loved and told her lies for no reason, except that those lies would allow me to continue having sex with another woman I cared about less. This act did not kill 20 million Russian peasants, but it might be more 'diabolical' in a literal sense. If I died and found out I was going to hell and Stalin was in heaven, I would note the irony, but I couldn't complain. I don't make the fucking rules.”
― Chuck Klosterman, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
― Aldous Huxley

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
― Oscar Wilde

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”
― Robert Frost

“The path to paradise begins in hell.”
― Dante Alighieri

“All right, then, I'll go to hell.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”
― Victor Hugo, Ninety-Three

“What is hell? Hell is oneself.
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”
― T.S. Eliot

“I told him I believed in hell, and that certain people, like me, had to live in hell before they died, to make up for missing out on it after death, since they didn't believe in life after death, and what each person believed happened to him when he died.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am.”
― Arthur Rimbaud

“Heaven and hell seem out of proportion to me: the actions of men do not deserve so much.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit

“God might work on mysterious ways, but hell worked on efficient ones.”
― Richelle Mead, Succubus Shadows

“I wish I could tell you how lonely I am. How cold and harsh it is here. Everywhere there is conflict and unkindness. I think God has forsaken this place. I believe I have seen hell and it's white, it's snow-white.”
― Sandy Welch

“I don't believe in the concept of hell, but if I did I would think of it as filled with people who were cruel to animals.”
― Gary Larson

“Let this hell be our heaven.”
― Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come

“You think You're frightening me with Your hell, don't You? You think Your hell is worse than mine.”
― Dorothy Parker, The Portable Dorothy Parker

“[T]he infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“Life is hell, at some point we all just have to get used to it.”
― Alysha Speer, Sharden

“But she's wrong about hell. You don't have to wait until you're dead to get there.”
― Susan Beth Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It

“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
― John Milton

“We'll see Heaven together. I promise with all my heart I'll never leave you alone.”
― Stacey T. Hunt, Wherever I Go

“Many people don't fear a hell after this life and that's because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn't end. The kind of hell that doesn't burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can't see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It's where you feel freedom, where you're not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“If heaven really exists: then heaven is the job, hell is unemployment, while life is merely an interview.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“He’d never really given religion much thought himself. It was just there, one of the basic fundamentals of life and living; Heaven is generally good and one should aspire to end up there, and Hell is decidedly foul and one should generally direct their enemies there.”
― T. A. Miles, Raventide

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
― Anonymous, The Holy Bible: King James Version