Purgatory Quotes

• Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Relationship, Marriage, Cynical

  Abraham Lincoln, Bob Blaisdell (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Book of Quotations”, p.91, Courier Corporation

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• Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces back together again. That He can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with Him and can stand there in the fullness of life. Purgatory strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed, and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Heart, Mean, Fullness Of Life

  "God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time : a Conversation with Peter Seewald". Book by Peter Seewald, 2002.

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• Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into joy? Should we not reply, With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleansed first. It may hurt, you know-even so, sir.

  C. S. Lewis

  Hurt, Heart, Son

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.222, Simon and Schuster

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• Of all the inhabitants of the inferno, none but Lucifer knows that hell is hell, and the secret function of purgatory is to make of heaven an effective reality.

  Arnold Bennett

  Reality, Heaven, Secret

  Arnold Bennett (1932). “The Journals of Arnold Bennett ...: 1896-1910”, London, Cassell

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• We absolutely believed in Heaven and Hell, Purgatory, and even Limbo. I mean, they were actually closer to us than Australia or Canada, that they were real places.

  John McGahern

  Real, Mean, Australia

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• We need no messiah and no sterile conception of a god menacing us with hell and purgatory.

  Federica Montseny

  Needs, Hell, Messiah

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• England is the paradise of women, the purgatory of men, and the hell of horses.

  John Florio

  Horse, Men, Paradise

  'Second Frutes' (1591) ch. 12

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• What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Dark, Men, Church

  Mary Wollstonecraft (1995). “Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints”, p.40, Cambridge University Press

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• Heaven is purpose, principle, and people. Purgatory is paper and procedure. Hell is rules and regulations.

  Dee Hock

  People, Heaven, Principles

  Dee Hock (2005). “One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization”, p.162, Berrett-Koehler Publishers

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• We must empty purgatory with our prayers.

  Pio of Pietrelcina

  Prayer, Empty, Our Prayers

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• If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Heaven, Catholic, Desperation

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1873). “The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons Preached and Revised”, p.57

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• If I have to spend time in purgatory before going to one place or the other, I guess I'll be all right as long as there's a lending library.

  Stephen King

  Book, Long, Library

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”, p.63, Simon and Schuster

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• I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you - then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest." His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me. Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.

  Diana Gabaldon

  Lying, Years, Punishment

  Diana Gabaldon (2015). “The Outlander Series 8-Book Bundle: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart's Blood”, p.1387, Dell

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• I used to be a major people pleaser, but that way purgatory lies.

  Tracie Bennett

  Lying, People, Way

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• The same fire" (which he decides to be material) " torments the damned in hell and the just in purgatory...The least pain in purgatory exceeds the greatest in this life.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Pain, Fire, Hell

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• History will be erased in the universal purgatory.

  Dejan Stojanovic

  Universal

  "Don Quixote". Poem by Dejan Stojanovic,

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• Angst is not the human condition, it’s the purgatory between what we have and what we want but can’t get.

  Miguel Syjuco

  Want, Human Condition, Angst

  Miguel Syjuco (2010). “Ilustrado: A Novel”, p.208, Macmillan

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• You may never reach that glorious moment until you die, so live life on the edge halfway between heaven and hell...and let's all dance in the middle in purgatory.

  Lady Gaga

  Live Life, Heaven, May

  "Lady Gaga dishes on sex drugs, born this way on Howard Stern" by Gil Kaufman, www.mtv.com. July 18, 2011.

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• If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory.

  Francis Quarles

  Beauty, Heart, Soul

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.57

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• The Catholic Church is a thousand times better than your Protestant Church upon that question [of damnation]. The Catholic Church believes in purgatory - that is, a place where a fellow can get a chance to make a motion for a new trial.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Believe, Catholic, Religion

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• Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame - to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, Want, Taste

  "Last of the Barons" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Book V, Chapter I, 1843.

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• When there is hell to pay, it is usually cheaper to pay it than to finance an endless purgatory.

  Robert Breault

  Responsibility, Pay, Hell

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• Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory. It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace.

  Francis Quarles

  Beauty, Wise, Heart

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.57

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• A person may say I am not much concerned how long I stay in purgatory, provided I may come to eternal life. Let no one reason thus. Purgatory fire will be more dreadful than whatever torments can be seen imagined, or endured in this world. He who is afraid now to put his finger into the fire, does he not fear lest he be then all buried in torments for a long time?

  Caesarius of Arles

  Fire, Long, World

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• The limitless jet-lag purgatory of Immigration and Baggage at Heathrow.

  Monica Dickens

  Immigration, Lag, Baggage

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