Emanuel Swedenborg Quotes

God created us in such a way that our inner self is in the spiritual world and our outer self is in the physical world. This was so that the spiritual part of us, which belongs in heaven, could be planted in the physical part the way a seed is planted in the ground.

Worship does not consist in prayers and in external devotion, but in a life of kindness.

Heaven is not located on high, but where the good of love is, and this resides within a person, wherever he or she might be.

Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do.

Conscience is God's presence in humans.

True wisdom is seeing what is beneficial to your eternal life, and managing your life according to that. You do this when you not only know these things and grasp them with your understanding, but also will and do them.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

Every single moment of a person's life, both of the understanding and of the will, is a new beginning.

Seen in its own right, a loving person's inner spirit is an angel of heaven, and while we are living in the body we are also in the company of angels, even though we are not aware of it; and once we are released from the body we join them.

For those who trust in the Divine all things are moving towards an everlasting state of happiness, and no matter what happens at any time to them, it contributes to that state.

This I can declare: things that are in heaven are more real than things that are in the world.

Angels can recognize the nature of our unique essence on the basis of nothing more than a brief conversation with us. From hearing the tone of our voice angels sense what we love; and from hearing what we say, angels sense our level of understanding.

Love comes into being through useful service to others.

People who have intended and loved what is evil in the world intend and love what is evil in the other life, and then they no longer allow themselves to be led away from it. This is why people who are absorbed in evil are connected to hell and actually are there in spirit; and after death they crave above all to be where their evil is. So after death, it is we, not the Lord, who cast ourselves into hell.

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

The divine essence itself is love and wisdom.

Our love is our life itself. What our love is like determines how we live and therefore everything about what we are as human beings.

Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding.

The activity of love and faith is what makes heaven.

People are unaware that spirits even exist, let alone that angels are present with them.

We are all spirits inwardly. This is what's alive in the body, not the body on its own.

True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.

Love consists in desiring to give what is our own to another and feeling his delight as our own.

Heaven is such that all who have lived well, of whatever religion, have a place there.

One's distance from Heaven is in proportion to the measure of one's self-love.