quotations about angels
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"
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes; The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods.
ALEXANDER POPE
Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!
WILLIAM BLAKE
King Edward the Third
We should, can and most of the time do communicate with God directly. To my knowledge, angels are not necessary for anything. But God's creation is abundant, and asking "Why angels?" would be like asking why there are thousands of varieties of trees or stars, when we could get along with so much less. God Himself told us many times that He was sending angels to love and care for us, so He is the one who brought them into our lives. Therefore, even if we don't understand their entire purpose, I vote that we pay attention to them.
JOAN WESTER ANDERSON
interview, Belief Net
The angels may have wider spheres of action, may have nobler forms of duty, but right with them and with us is one and the same thing.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Living Words
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
If angels stoop from visions of more than earthly beauty to spells of less than earthly worth, they are but fallen angels, mingling divine utterances with the babblings of madness, and the madness is not the divineness.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Living Words
Angels are winged with God's power.
SOLON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth -- unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
What is all this shit about angels? Have you heard this? Three out of four people now, believe in angels. What're you, fucking stupid? Has everybody lost their f***ing minds in this country? Angels, shit. You know what I think it is? I think it's a massive collective psychotic chemical flashback of all the drugs -- all the drugs -- smoked, swallowed, snorted, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990. Thirty years of adulterated street drugs'll get you some f***ing angels, my friend.
GEORGE CARLIN
"Angels", You Are All Diseased
Angels may be very excellent sort of folk in their own way, but we, poor mortals in our present state, would probably find them precious slow company.
JEROME K. JEROME
"On Vanity and Vanities", Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
We are ne'er like angels till our passion dies.
THOMAS DEKKER
The Honest Whore
There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.
GREGORY THE GREAT
Homilies
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
As God enlarges your awareness of the spiritual realm, you will come to realize that these Kingdom beings are always with you in your personal journey, your family and your community. You are never alone; God has made provision for you. Anytime you feel lost, afraid, confused or desperate, you are probably focusing on your situation, not on God. As you turn to God for help, He releases His mighty angels to intervene supernaturally and come to your assistance.
JUDITH MACNUTT
introduction, Encountering Angels: True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives Every Day
We are not alone in our struggles. We have help from beyond. Sometimes such help is wondrously manifested in encounters we cannot rationally explain. Sometimes such help is mysteriously conveyed through the hands and hearts of those we meet in the flesh. A corollary underpinning is like unto the first: Whether we recognize it or not, God wills good for all human beings. The key, of course, is whether we welcome the help and the holy intention.
DUKE TUFTY
"Voices of Faith: Does everyone have a guardian angel, even bad people?", Kansas City Star, March 4, 2016
The trendiness of angels with the public at large waxes and wanes, but in our time, the big surge of interest in angels began in the early 1990s. Suddenly these beings, which previously had shown up now and then in movies and TV but mostly on cards at Christmas and disappeared for the rest of the year, were everywhere. Why was this? The short answer is that there is something about angels that makes it impossible for people to forget about them for too long. There may be phases during which they sink out of sight, yet those phases always end eventually, and the figure of the angel reemerges, interpreted through the lens of the time in which they have appeared back into the light of human interest.
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
I believe angels are among us, bringing comfort, strength, healing, freedom and, most importantly of all, providing a stepping stone to the larger reality that is God's Kingdom--to the very heart of God.
JUDITH MACNUTT
introduction, Encountering Angels: True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives Every Day
We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.
LUCIANO DE CRESCENZO
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
Angels shine from without because their spirits are lit from within by the light of God.
EILEEN ELIAS FREEMAN
The Angels' Little Instruction Book: Learning from God's Heavenly Messengers