quotations about angels
Ye holy angels bright, who stand before God's throne and dwell in glorious light, praise ye the Lord each one. Assist our song, or else the theme too high doth seem for mortal tongue.
RICHARD BAXTER
Poetical Fragments
Songs of praise the angels sang, Heav'n with alleluias rang, when creation was begun, when God spoke and it was done.
JAMES MONTGOMERY
"Songs of Praise the Angels Sang"
Angels never attack, as infernal spirits do. Angels only ward off and defend.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Arcana Coelestia
Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure and are awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Each single angel is terrifying.
RAINER MARIA RILKE
Duino Elegies
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
In Heaven an angel is nobody in particular.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Man and Superman
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
How great an evil, then, is pride! It overcast, in a moment, all the beautiful and eternal prospects, it eclipsed, in a moment, all the splendour, virtue, and dignity of Angels.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT
Theology Explained and Defended
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
G. K. CHESTERTON
"The Eternal Revolution", Orthodoxy
Angels are winged with God's power.
SOLON
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
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"
Some reputable scientists deny and others assert that UFOs do appear to people from time to time. Some scientists have reached the place where they think they can prove that these are possibly visitors from outer space. Some Christian writers have speculated that UFOs could very well be apart of God's angelic host who preside over the physical affairs of universal creation. While we cannot assert such a view with certainty, many people are now seeking some type of supernatural explanation for these phenomena. Nothing can hide the face, however, that these unexplained events are occurring with greater frequency around the entire world and in unexpected places.
BILLY GRAHAM
Angels: Ringing Assurance that We Are Not Alone
When people think of angels, they think flowing robes and halos. But in the Bible, they also look like ordinary people. Why not today?
JOAN WESTER ANDERSON
In the Arms of Angels
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON
The Federalist, Feb. 6, 1788
We are ne'er like angels till our passion dies.
THOMAS DEKKER
The Honest Whore
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; All quit their spere, and rush into the skies! Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Man
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!
WILLIAM BLAKE
King Edward the Third
This is the state of all creatures, whether men or angels; as they make not themselves, so they enjoy nothing from themselves; if they are great, it must be only as great receivers of the gifts of God; their power can only be so much of the divine power acting in them; their wisdom can be only so much of the divine wisdom shining within them; and their light and glory, only so much of the light and glory of God shining upon them.
WILLIAM LAW
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life