quotations about angels
For what is it that angels do? They bring us good news. They open our eyes to moments of wonder, to lovely possibilities, to exemplary people, to the idea that God is here in our midst. They lift our hearts and give us wings.
JOAN WESTER ANDERSON
Where Angels Walk
Angels may be very excellent sort of folk in their own way, but we, poor mortals in our present state, would probably find them precious slow company.
JEROME K. JEROME
"On Vanity and Vanities", Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Man is a mixed being, made up of a spiritual soul and of a fleshly body; the angels are pure spirits, herein nearer to God, only that they are created and finite in all respects, free from decay, free from the power of death, whereas God is infinite and uncreated.
J. C. HARE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Criticism
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
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!
WILLIAM BLAKE
King Edward the Third
The very names assigned to angels by their Creator, convey to us ideas pre-eminently pleasing, fitted to captivate the heart, and exalt the imagination; ideas which dispel gloom, banish despondency, enliven hope, and awaken sincere and unmingled joy.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT
Theology Explained and Defended
You have asked for help so know that God and the Angels are helping you right now. Continue to ask for their assistance, and then be open to accept it when it comes (and it always does).
SHARON TAPHORN
"Angel Blessings", beliefnet, March 7, 2016
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
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
The greatest thing we can learn from the holy angels is their instant, unquestioning obedience to God's command.
PETER NWARU
"Existence of Angels: What Christians believe", National Mirror, February 28, 2016
Lord, give Thine angels every day / Command to guard us on our way / And bid them every evening keep / Their watch around us while we sleep / So shall no wicked thing draw near / To do us harm or cause us fear / And we shall dwell, when life is past / With angels round Thy throne at last.
JOHN M. NEALE
Hymns for Children
All this bit about angels and all the different religions, it's based on something. I think anything's possible. I believe in everything until it's disproved.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Revolutionary Artist: John Lennon's Radical Years
Man is his own star, and the soul that can render an honest and a perfect man commands all light, all influence, all fate. Nothing to him falls early, or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
JOHN FLETCHER
The Honest Man's Fortune
We can all be angels to one another. We can choose to obey the still small stirring within, the little whisper that says, "Go. Ask. Reach out. Be an answer to someone's plea. You have a part to play. Have faith." We can decide to risk that He is indeed there, watching, caring, cherishing us as we love and accept love. The world will be a better place for it. And wherever they are, the angels will dance.
JOAN WESTER ANDERSON
Where Angels Walk
But all God's angels come to us disguised: sorrow and sickness, poverty and death, one after other lift their frowning masks, and we behold the Seraph's face beneath, all radiant with the glory and the calm of having looked upon the front of God.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"On the Death of a Friend's Child"
In this dim world of clouding cares, we rarely know, till 'wildered eyes see white wings lessening up the skies, the Angels with us unawares.
GERALD MASSEY
The Ballad of Babe Christabel
In Heaven an angel is nobody in particular.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Man and Superman
The angels may have wider spheres of action, may have nobler forms of duty, but right with them and with us is one and the same thing.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
Living Words
The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was, "What are angels?" New to questioning, unaccustomed to terror, unskilled in aloneness, the angels (we assume) fell into despair.
DONALD BARTHELME
"On Angels"