A garland of quotations XLI
Culled from the finest chaff in literary history, and re-woven every Wednesday
A e i o u his Great Name doth spell,
Here it is known, but is not known in hell.
•H.L., A Divine Horn-Book, or the First Form in the True Theosophick School (1688).
Hiram, king of Tyre, was brought by God into paradise because he built the Temple and was at first God-fearing. He remained alive in paradise for a thousand years. Later. however, he became arrogant and said, ‘I am a god,’ as it is said, ‘Because you have been so haughty and have said, I am a god’ (Ezekiel 28:2). He was then driven out of paradise, and he entered hell.
•The Alphabet of Ben Sira (C9?).
There is no such thing as hell; man cannot have two hells, first here and then again after death.
•Marina Takalo, quoted in Juha Y. Pentikäinen, Kalevalan mytologia (1987).
Peace is only better than war if peace is not hell too. War being hell makes sense.
•Walker Percy, The Second Coming (1980).
A person who hangs himself will continue to hang himself in Hell. A person who stabs himself will continue to do so in Hell.
•Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari (846).
Abú Jahl was suffering in a burning hell, the hell
Of poking your own eyes out with a pointed stick.
•M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, A Song for Muhammad (Sal.) (ca. 1961).
As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.
•William Blake, Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790).
The color red in hell looks cool.
•Frederick Seidel, “June” (2002).
I would I could retrace my steps—I cannot. Would I could evade my own reflections! No! thought and memory are my hell.
•Richard Sheridan, Pizarro (1799)
Jean-Paul Sartre was wrong. Hell was not other people back in the 1950s. Hell didn’t become other people until other people became like Sartre.
•J.R. Taylor, “Charmer: Am I So Ugly?” (1998).
On second thought, hell is myself.
•Daria (1998).
References: Ben Sira: in Stern & Mirsky, eds., Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature (Jewish Publication Society, 1990); al-Bukhari: from Neal Robinson, ed., The Sayings of Muhammad (Ecco, 1998); Seidel: Area Code 212 (FSG, 2014); Taylor: New York Press 1/28–2/3, 1998; Daria: season 2, ep. 6, “Monster”; some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.