Heaven Quotations

Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky, the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond or to an afterlife plane of existence (often held to exist in another realm) in various religions and spiritual philosophies, often described as the holiest possible place, accessible by people according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith or awareness.

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Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.
- Richard Bach, in Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

I cannot be content with less than heaven;
Living, and comprehensive of all life.
Thee, universal heaven, celestial all;
Thee, sacrjd seat of intellective time;
Field of the soul's best wisdom: home of truth,
Star-throned.
- Philip James Bailey, Festus (1903)

If our Creator has so bountifully provided for our existence here, which is but momentary, and for our temporal wants, which will soon be forgotten, how much more must He have done for our enjoyment in the everlasting world?
- Hosea Ballou, as quoted in Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou (1854) p. 261

Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul. "The kingdom of God is within you."
- Henry Ward Beecher, in Life Thoughts: Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
- William Blake in Auguries of Innocence (c. 1803)

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all Heaven in a rage.
- William Blake in Auguries of Innocence (c. 1803)

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.
- Emily Brontë in "No Coward Soul Is Mine" (1848)

Heaven does not make holiness, but holiness makes heaven; because if you do not give yourself in sympathy to goodness, goodness cannot give itself in influence to you.
- Phillips Brooks, in "The Gift And Its Return" in Sermons (1883), p. 275

All the way to Heaven is heaven because He said,"'I am the Way."
- St. Catherine of Siena, as quoted in My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi (1959) by Elizabeth Goudge, p. 107

Howling is the noise of hell, singing the voice of heaven; sadness the damp of hell, rejoicing the serenity of heaven. And he that hath not this joy here, lacks one of the best pieces of his evidence for the joys of heaven; and hath neglected or refused that earnest, by which God uses to bind his bargain, that true joy in this world shall flow into the joy of heaven, as a river flows into the sea; this joy shall not be put out in death, and a new joy kindled in me in heaven; but as my soul, as soon as it is out of my body, is in heaven, and does not stay for the possession of heaven, nor for the fruition of the sight of God, till it be ascended through air, and lire, and moon, and sun, and planets and firmament, to that place which we conceive to be heaven, but without the thousandth part of a minute's stop, as soon as it issues, is in a glorious light, which is heaven, (for all the way to heaven is heaven; and as those angels, which came from heaven hither, bring heaven with them, and are in heaven here, so that soul that goes to heaven, meets heaven here ; and as those angels do not divest heaven by coming, so these souls invest heaven, in their going.) As my soul shall not go towards heaven, but go by heaven to heaven, to the heaven of heavens, so the true joy of a good soul in this world is the very joy of heaven
- John Donne in Sermon LXVI in The Works of John Donne: With a Memoir of His Life (1839) edited by Henry Alford, p. 177

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
- Jim Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot (28 October 1949)

Heaven is the day of which grace is the dawn; the rich, ripe fruit of which grace is the lovely flower; the inner shrine of that most glorious temple to which grace forms the approach and outer court.
- Thomas Guthrie, in Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints (1859), p. 22

Nothing is further than Earth from Heaven: nothing is nearer than Heaven to Earth.
- Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth

The number of levels in Heaven is the number of verses in the Qur'an. Thus, when a reciter of the Qur'an enters into Heaven, it will be said to him: 'Go up one level for every verse that you can recite.' Thus, no one will be in a higher level than the one who has memorized the entire Qur'an.
- Muhammad, Biharul Anwar, Volume 92, Page 22; note that the Qur'an has 6,236 verses.

He who seldom thinks of heaven is not likely to get thither; as the only way to hit the mark is to keep the eye fixed upon it.
- Bishop Horne, Aphorisms and Opinions of Dr. George Horne

The redeemed shall walk there.
- Isaiah 35:9

Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.
- Andrew Jackson, in a statement shortly before his death, as quoted in Life of Andrew Jackson (1860) by James Parton, p. 679.

Blessed is the pilgrim, who in every place, and at all times of this his banishment in the body, calling upon the holy name of Jesus, calleth to mind his native heavenly land, where his blessed Master, the King of saints and angels, waiteth to receive him. Blessed is the pilgrim who seeketh not an abiding place unto himself in this world; but longeth to be dissolved, and be with Christ in heaven.
- Thomas à Kempis, Vera Sapientia or True Wisdom

The generous who is always just, and the just who is always generous, may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.
- Johann Kaspar Lavater, as quoted in Laconics: or, the Best Words of the Best Authors (1929) by John Timbs

Through death Christian's soul goes to—1st. Perfect purity 2dly. Fullness of joy. 3dly. Everlasting freedom. 4thly. Perfect rest. 5thly. Health and fruition. 6thly. Complete security. 7thly. Substantial and eternal good.
- Hannah More, diary entry (7 January 1798)

The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his handywork.
- Psalms 19:1

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose under heaven.
- Pete Seeger, in "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (1954)

Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside.
- George Bernard Shaw, A Treatise On Parents And Children (1910)

Heaven's not a place that you go when you die, it's that moment in life when you actually feel alive
- The Spill Canvas in "The Tide"

Yet stay, heaven gates are not so highly arch'd As princes' palaces; they that enter there, Must go upon their knees.
- John Webster, The Dutchess of Malfi act IV, scene II

If Christians have the monopoly of salvation, over whom will they rule? And how will this promise be fulfilled, that to faithful servants is given the authority over five or ten cities (Luke 19:17-19)? It is no fun to be king over empty towns. So they will be populated by those who have not been faithful servants. We Christians will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, but there will also be nations walking in its light (Revelation 21:24). The leaves of the tree of life will serve for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2), which means that there will be in the life beyond people who need a cure for their souls.
- Richard Wurmbrand, If Prison Walls Could Speak (1972)

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

O rest of rests! O peace serene, eternal!
Thou ever livest, and Thou changest never!
And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth
Fullness of joy, forever and forever.
- Mrs. H. B. Stowe, p. 299.

We are born for a higher destiny than earth; there is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will be spread before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that pass before us like shadows will stay in our presence forever.
- Bulwer Lytton, p. 299.

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon, glowing sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o'er life's f1nished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know —
Not till then — how much I owe.
- Robert McCheyne, p. 299.

No wearisome days, no sorrowful nights; no hunger or thirst; no anxiety or fears; no envies, no jealousies, no breaches of friendship, no sad separations, no distrusts or forebodings, no self-reproaches, no enmities, no bitter regrets, no tears, no heartaches; "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 300.

No more fatigue, no more distress,
Nor sin nor death shall reach the place;
No groans shall mingle with the songs
That warble from immortal tongues.
- Philip Doddridge, p. 300.

Christ and His cross are not separable in this life, howbeit Christ and His cross part at heaven's door, for there is no house-room for crosses in heaven. One tear, one sigh, one sad heart, one fear, one loss, one thought of trouble cannot find lodging there.
- Samuel Rutherford, p. 300.

"A little while," and the load
Shall drop at the pilgrim's feet,
Where the steep and thorny road
Doth merge in the golden street.
- Washington Gladden, p. 300.

After the fever of life — after wearinesses, sicknesses, fightings and despondings, languor and fretfulness, struggling and failing, struggling and succeeding — after all the changes and chances of this troubled and unhealthy state, at length comes death — at length the white throne of God — at length the beatific vision.
- Newman, p. 301.

And then, the quiet of the green, inland valleys of our Father's land, where no tempest comes any more, nor the loud winds are ever heard, nor the salt sea is ever seen; but perpetual calm and blessedness; all mystery gone, and all rebellion hushed and silenced, and all unrest at an end forever! " No more sea;" but, instead of that wild and yeasty chaos of turbulent waters, there shall be the river that makes glad the city of God, the river of water of life, that proceeds "out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."
- Alexander Maclaren, p. 301.

An everlasting tranquillity is, in my imagination, the highest possible felicity, because I know of no felicity on earth higher than that which a peaceful mind and contented heart afford.
- Zimmerman, p. 301.

Selfishness, eager for a heaven of enjoyment, is quite a different thing in the soul from love and purity and truth, yearning together for what is their natural element.
- William Mountford, p. 302.

What tranquillity will there be in heaven! Who can express the fullness and blessedness of this peace! What a calm is this! How sweet and holy and joyous! What a haven of rest to enter, after having passed through the storms and tempests of this world, in which pride and selfishness and envy and malice and scorn and contempt and contention and vice are as waves of a restless ocean, always rolling, and often dashed about in violence and fury! What a Canaan of rest to come to, after going through this waste and howling wilderness, full of snares and pitfalls and poisonous serpents, where no rest could be found.
- Jonathan Edwards, p. 302.

O, land of rest, how near thou art! O, judgment-seat of Jesus, how thin are the clouds that veil thee! Through the rifts of cloudland shine rays from this righteous crown. It is "laid up" for him whose hope can never be satisfied with less than the presence of the King.
- Stephen H. Tyng, Jr, p. 302.

One should go to sleep as homesick passengers do, saying " Perhaps in the morning we shall see the shore."
- Henry Ward Beecher, p. 302.

And looking back upon " the sea that brought us thither," we shall behold its waters flashing in the light of that everlasting morning, and hear them breaking into music upon the eternal shore. And then, brethren, when all the weary night-watchers on the stormy ocean of life are gathered together around Him who watched with them from His throne on the bordering mountains of eternity, where the day shines forever — then He will seat them at His table in His kingdom, and none will need to ask, "Who art Thou?" or, "Where am I?" " for all shall know it is the Lord," and the full, perfect, unchangeable vision of His blessed face will be heaven.
- Alexander Maclaren, p. 303.

In our Father's house it will not be the pearl gate or the streets of gold that will make us happy. But oh, how tran- scendently glad shall we be when we see our Lord. Perhaps in that "upper room," also, He may show us His hands and His side, and we may cry out with happy Thomas, "My Lord and my God!"
- Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 303.

Oh, heaven without my Saviour
Would be no heaven to me;
Dim were the walls of jasper —
Rayless the crystal sea.
He gilds earth's darkest valleys
With light and joy and peace;
What then must be the radiance
When night and death shall cease?
- Helen L. Parmlee, p. 303.

Perhaps heaven may not be so far away as we fancy; and if our eyes were not holden, we should see angels ascending and descending, and blessed spirits thronging all about us.
- Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 304.

There is not such a great difference between grace and glory after all. Grace is the bud, and glory is the blossom. Grace is glory begun; and glory is grace perfected. It won't come hard to people that are serving God down here to do it when they go up yonder. They will change places, but they won't change employments.
- Dwight L. Moody, p. 304.

I change my place, but not my company. While here I have sometimes walked with God, and now I go to rest with Him,
- Dr. Preston, p. 304.

Every Christian that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven.
- Jonathan Edwards, p. 304.

What we sow here, we reap there! Can it be supposed that the soul will enjoy a reward or endure a retribution for deeds of which it has no recollection? Is the thing possible? Will it enjoy the bliss of heaven, praising Christ forever as its great Saviour, without any remembrance of the sins and sufferings from which He redeemed and saved it? The idea is absurd.
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 305.

Death must obliterate all memories and affections and ideas and laws, or the awakening in the next world will be amid the welcomes, and loves and raptures of those who left us with tearful farewells, and with dying promises that they would wait to welcomes us when we should arrive. And so they do. Not sorrowfully, not anxiously, but lovingly, they wait to bid us welcome.
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 305.

With Christ, and like Christ, and not love our friends! Impossible! when He loves them so tenderly. Going into the fuller presence of Him whose very name is "Love" can never make our hearts less loving.
- Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 305.

I shall know the loved who have gone before,
And joyfully sweet will the meeting be,
When over the river, the peaceful river,
The angel of death shall carry me.
- N. A. W. Priest, p. 305.

Then re-united to the friends with whom vve took sweet counsel upon earth, we shall recount our toil, only to heighten our ecstasy; and call to mind the toil and the din of war, oniy that, with a more bounding throb and a richer song, we may fee! and celebrate the wonders of redemption.
- Henry Melvill, p. 305.

Blessed loves! how happy they have made us on the earth; what will they be when they have deepened through ages, with no alloy of envy or suspicion or selfishness or sorrow?
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 306.

God would never have let us long for our friends with such a strong and holy love, if they were not waiting for us.
- William Mountford, p. 306.

They are kings and priests unto God. They wear crowns that flash in the everlasting light. They wear robes that are spotlessly white. They wave victorious palms. They sing anthems of such exceeding sweetness as no earthly choirs ever approach. They stand before the throne. They fly on ministries of love. They muse on the top of Mount Zion. They meditate on the banks of the river of life. They are rapturous with ecstasies of love. God wipes away all tears from their eyes.
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 306.

In heaven, knowledge shall be commensurate with the enlarged powers of the glorified soul.
- Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 307.

The joys of heaven are not the joys of passive contemplation, of dreamy remembrance, of perfect repose; but they are described thus: "They rest not day nor night." "His servants serve Him, and see His face."
- Alexander Maclaren, p. 307.

Man has in his power, now developed, nothing more than a mere hint or initial sign of what is to be the real stature of his personality in the process of his everlasting development. We exist here only in the small, that God may have us in a state of flexibility, and bend or fashion us, at the best advantage, to the model of His own great life and character.
- Horace Bushnell, p. 307.

It doth not yet appear what we shall be. We lie here in our nest, unfledged and weak, guessing dimly at our future, and scarce believing what even now appears. But the power is in us, and that power is finally to be revealed. And what a revelation will that be!
- Horace Bushnell, p. 307.

Will not this be the description of our future being — "reaching forth unto those things which are before?" I believe that we shall thus live through all the eternities that are before us, growing wiser, nobler, stronger, greater; plunging deeper into God, and being more and more filled with more and more of Him. So we shall move forever as in ascending spirals that rise ever higher, and draw ever closer to the throne we compass and to Him that dwells alone; ever perfect, yet ever growing, for we have an inexhaustible Saviour to absorb into our hearts, and we have hearts that never reach the ultimate bound and term of their indefinite possibility of receiving.
- Alexander Maclaren, p. 307.

Heaven is endless longing, accompanied with an endless fruition — a longing which is blessedness, a longing which is life.
- Alexander Maclaren, p. 308.

As we look up into these glorious culminations, how grand life becomes! To be forever with the Lord, and forever changing into His likeness, and, still more, forever deepening in the companionship of His thought and bliss, "from glory to glory," — could we desire more?
- Randolph Sinks Foster, p. 308.

We should carry up our affections to the mansions prepared for us above, where eternity is the measure, felicity the state, angels the company, the Lamb the light, and God the inheritance and portion of His people forever.
- Jeremy Taylor, p. 308.

Yes, it is a truth that for a good man,— honored, beloved, useful,— with all around him that God ever gives to His children here;— nay, with all that God could give him of earth, it would be " gain " to die. Heaven is a better, a happier, a more desirable world than this is or can be.
- Albert Barnes, p. 308.

Beyond the smiling and the weeping,
I shall be soon;
Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,
I shall be soon!
Love, rest, and home —
Sweet hope! Lord, tarry not, but come!
- Horatius Bonar, p. 308.

Oil, when shall the night be gone, the shadows flee away, and the morning of that long, long day, without cloud or night, dawn.
- Samuel Rutherford, p. 309.

Rejoice, oh! grieving heart,
The hours fly past;
With each some sorrow dies,
With each some shadow flies,
Until at last
The red dawn in the east
Bids weary night depart,
And pain is past.
- A. A. Proctor, p. 309.

When the day of toil is done,
When the race of life is run,
Father, grant Thy wearied one
Rest for evermore!
When the heart by sorrow tried
Feels at length its throbs subside,
Bring us, where all tears are dried,
Joy for evermore!
- C. C. Scholefield, p. 309.

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Name something you like. I bet it's not in heaven. Sex? Sorry, lust is a sin. Can't have it. Your career? Nope. There's no money in heaven; nobody needs to work. Besides, as far as I can tell from studying the scriptures, all you do in heaven is pretty much just sit around all day and praise the Lord. I don't know about you, but I think that after the first, oh, I don't know, 50,000,000 years of that I'd start to get a little bored.
- Rick Reynolds

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