quotations about angels
Angels never attack, as infernal spirits do. Angels only ward off and defend.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Arcana Coelestia
Around our pillows golden ladders rise, and up and down the skies, with winged sandals shod, the angels come, and go, the Messengers of God!
R. H. STODDARD
Hymn to the Beautiful
The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was, "What are angels?" New to questioning, unaccustomed to terror, unskilled in aloneness, the angels (we assume) fell into despair.
DONALD BARTHELME
"On Angels"
When I was a child and heard about angels, I was both frightened and fascinated by the thought of these enormous, invisible presences in our midst. I conceived of them not as white-robed androgynes with yellow locks and thick gold wings, which was how my friend Matty Wilson had described them to me--Matty was the predecessor of all sorts of arcane knowledge--but as big, dark, blundering men, massive in their weightlessness, given to pranks and ponderous play, who might knock you over, or break you in half, without meaning to. When a child from Miss Molyneaux's infant school in Carrickdrum fell under the hoofs of a dray-horse one day and was trampled to death, I, a watchful six year old, knew who was to blame; I pictured his guardian angel standing over the child's crushed form with his big hands helplessly extended, not sure whether to be contrite or to laugh.
JOHN BANVILLE
The Untouchable
Be content not with your lot in life but with being here in the flow of life. The glories of creation are in your very cells; you are made of the same mindstuff as the angels, the stars, and god himself.
DEEPAK CHOPRA
The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life
The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Intellect", Essays
When you get your spiritual vision focused, you'll know through faith that the angels are moving up and down your ladder carrying out their ministry to you on God's behalf.
TONY EVANS
The Truth About Angels
One glimpse of full reality would sweep us away, and angels are ambassadors of full reality.
PTOLEMY TOMPKINS & TYLER BEDDOES
Proof of Angels: The Definitive Book on the Reality of Angels and the Surprising Role They Play in Each of Our Lives
When angels visit earth, the messengers
Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind:
Before the throne, they all are living fire.
EMMA LAZARUS
"The Birth of Man: A Legend of the Talmud"
Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.
NATHANIEL COTTON
To-morrow
Hey if God will send his angels / And if God will send a sign / And if God will send his angels / Would everything be alright?
BONO
"If God Will Send His Angels", Pop
All the difference between men and angels is, men are passing through the day of trial that angels have already passed through.
BRIGHAM YOUNG
Journal of Discourses
An angel can illuminate the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision, and by bringing within his reach some truth which the angel himself contemplates.
THOMAS AQUINAS
attributed, Angels: A Joyous Celebration
They will come from the bright, sunny land, come on their pinions so fair; Jesus will send them its glory to tell, Angels will carry me there.
FANNY CROSBY
Will the Angels Come?
Those who consider the Devil to be a partisan of Evil and angels to be warriors for Good accept the demagogy of the angels. Things are clearly more complicated.
MILAN KUNDERA
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Life is a tapestry: We are the warp; angels, the weft; God, the weaver. Only the Weaver sees the whole design.
EILEEN ELIAS FREEMAN
The Angels' Little Instruction Book: Learning from God's Heavenly Messengers
Be an angel to someone else whenever you can, as a way of thanking God for the help your angel has given you.
EILEEN ELIAS FREEMAN
The Angels' Little Instruction Book: Learning from God's Heavenly Messengers
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!
WILLIAM BLAKE
King Edward the Third
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Goodness and Goodness in Nature", Essays
Angels boast ethereal vigor, and are formed from seeds of heavenly birth.
VIRGIL
attributed, Day's Collacon