Great Throughts Treasury

"Man knows that love is, but not what it is."

"Man was so created by the Lord as to be able while living in the body to speak with spirits and angels, as in fact was done in the most ancient times; for, being a spirit clothed with a body, he is one with them."

"Man, before he is being regenerated, does not even know that any internal man exists, much less is he acquainted with its nature and quality."

"Marriages on earth--because they are the seminaries of the human race and of the angels of heaven also; because, likewise, they proceed from a spiritual origin, that is, from the marriage of good and truth; and since, in addition, the Lord's divine proceeding principally flows into conjugal love--are most holy in the estimation of the angels."

"Men live a moral life, either from regard to the Diving Being, or from regard to the opinion of the people in the world; and when a moral life is practised out of regard to the Divine Being, it is a spiritual life. Both appear alike in their outward form; but in their inward, they are completely different. The one saves a man, but the other does not; for he that leads a moral life out of regard to the Divine Being is led by him, but he who does so from regard to the opinion of people in the world is led by himself."

"Moreover, no one is judged from the natural man, thus not so long as he lives in the natural world, for man is then in a natural body; but everyone is judged in the spiritual man, and therefore when he comes into the spiritual world, for man is then in a spiritual body."

"One person who has mastered life is better than a thousand persons who have mastered only the contents of books."

"Others work among the spirits that have just arrived in the world of spirits. Again others raise the children who have died in infancy. Swedenborg ensures the parents of these infants that 'All children whether born within or outside of the church, are adopted by the Lord and become Angels'."

"Peace has in it trust in the Lord, that He governs all things, provides all things, and leads to a good end."

"Self-love and the love of the world constitute hell."

"Since the Bible is a divine revelation, every single part of it is divine. Anything that comes from the divine could be no other way. Everything that comes from the divine goes down through the heavens all the way to people on earth. In heaven it is adapted to the wisdom of the angels there, and on earth it is adapted to the understanding of the people there. So the Bible has an inner, spiritual meaning for angels and an outer, material-level meaning for people on earth. That is why our connection to heaven happens through the Bible."

"So far any one shuns evils, so far as he does good."

"Some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called spiritual because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up the desires attributed to the body and the flesh and live spiritually. All they understand by this is spurning worldly interests, especially concerns for money and prestige, going around in constant devout meditation about God, salvation, and eternal life, devoting their lives to prayer, and reading the Word and religious literature. They think this is renouncing the world and living for the spirit and not for the flesh. However, the actual case is quite different, as I have learned from an abundance of experience and conversation with angels. In fact, people who renounce the world and live for the spirit in this fashion take on a mournful life for themselves, a life that is not open to heavenly joy, since our life does remain with us [after death]. No, if we would accept heaven's life, we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs. In this way, we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven. This is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation, that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or totters until it collapses."

"Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the man."

"That all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, follows from those things which have been said and shown in the preceding article, namely, that Heaven and Hell are from the human race."

"The act of exploring what the men are, and moreover the separation of the good from the evil, is visitation; and the good are then removed, and the evil are left behind."

"The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they constitute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them."

"The church of the Lord is spread over all the globe, and is thus universal; and all those are in it who have lived in the good of charity in accordance with their religion."

"The Divine of the Lord in heaven is love, for the reason that love is receptive of all things of heaven, such as peace, intelligence, wisdom and happiness."

"The human race is the basis on which heaven is founded, is because man was last created, and that which is last created is the basis of all that precedes."

"The human race is the seminary of heaven, will appear from a subsequent article, in which it will be shown, that Heaven and Hell are from the human race, and that therefore the human race is the seminary of heaven."

"The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God as if he stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge."

"The Lord withdraws no one from their hell unless they see that they are in hell and wish to be led out."

"The Lord, from His Divine love by His Divine wisdom, provides the means by which people can be saved; and these means are present with every person born into the world."

"The Lord’s church is spread over the whole globe, and so is universal. All who live a good life according to their own religious belief are members of it. Heaven is of such a nature that all who have lived well, of whatever religion, have a place there."

"The more nearly you are connected to the Lord, the more distinctly you appear to yourself to be the master of yourself, and yet the more clearly you recognize that you are the Lord’s."

"The more we have the less we own."

"The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great."

"The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake."

"The quality of the Lord's church on earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in the world, still less how the church in process of time has turned aside from good to evil."

"The sky is an enormous man."

"There are angels that receive more interiorly the Divine that goes forth from the Lord, and others that receive it less interiorly; the former are called celestial angels, and the latter spiritual angels."

"There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence."

"There is affection in every employment, and it gives the spirit energy, and keeps the mind intent upon its work or study. This if it be not relaxed, becomes dull, and its earnestness flags,—as salt that has lost its savor, so that it has no pungency or relish; or as bended bow, which unless it be unbent, loses the power that it derives from its elasticity."

"There is granted to everyone after death the opportunity of amending his life, if it is at all possible."

"This Divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine love."

"To be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of God."

"To have dominion by religion, is to have dominion over men's souls, thus over their very spiritual life, and to use the Divine things, which are in their religion, as the means."

"Two consorts in heaven are not two, but one angel."

"We cannot become angels, that is, come into heaven, unless we bring something of an angelic character from living in this world."

"What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love."

"What a man thinks in his spirit in the world, that he does after his departure from the world when he becomes a spirit."

"What is true is true, and what is false is false."

"What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action."

"When someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs' breathing and the heart's systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Bible, death means resurrection and a continuation of life."

"Withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand most secret ways."

"Without such a Life, the Word as to the letter is dead."

"You are what you love, and you love whatever you give your attention to."