APOCALYPSE QUOTES
quotations about the Apocalypse
Apocalypse has come and gone. We're just grubbing in the ashes.
SAMUEL R. DELANY
Dhalgren
Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison.
HEINRICH HEINE
"Lutetia; or, Paris", Augsberg Gazette, 1842
The apocalypse is coming, that's the one thing I like about George Bush, I really think he can get us into the ... apocalypse, like the BIBLICAL ... I really think he believes that he'll be the guy in the white hat. I think he's read the Stephen King novel The Stand a couple times, and he really thinks there's a dark man in the desert somewhere and he's gonna fight him or something.
PATTON OSWALT
stand-up routine
Hardly has the universe stretched its wings to span
When it gathers to egg once more.
J. ALEKSANDR WOOTTON
Forgetting: Impressions From the Millennial Borderland
If the Apocalypse comes, beep me.
BUFFY
"Never Kill a Boy on the First Date", Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.
ROGER ZELAZNY
Prince of Chaos
There's no big apocalypse. Just an endless procession of little ones.
NEIL GAIMAN
Signal to Noise
What's going to happen is, very soon, we're going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The food trucks will come to a halt. This is the end of the world.
KURT VONNEGUT, JR.
Rolling Stone, Aug. 24, 2006
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
REVELATIONS 7:2-3
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
R.E.M.
"It's the End of the World As We Know It"
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T. S. ELIOT
The Hollow Men
If I have to face the end of human existence, I want to look totally smoking when it happens.
ANGELINE TREVENA
Fifty Shades of Decay
Don't blame yourself. The apocalypse wasn't your fault. Actually, it was just as much your fault as it was anyone else's. Come to think of it, if you're an American, it was probably about 80-90 percent more your fault than the average human. But don't let that get you down. It wasn't exclusively your fault. Unless you're the president. Then it might be your fault. But you'll have plenty of interns to tell you that it wasn't, so you'll be fine.
MEGHANN MARCO
Field Guide to the Apocalypse
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
REVELATIONS 7:1
It was the hubris of each generation to think this anew, to think that their time was special, that all things would come to an end with them.
HUGH HOWEY
Shift
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
"The Second Coming"
The Apocalypse is not a consecutive Prophecy. Rather, it is to be regarded as a synoptical system of co-ordinate Prophecies. And so it was regarded by the Ancient Expositors. They perceived that it consisted of frequent anticipations and frequent recapitulations; that is, they saw that the inspired Writer, borne as it were on the wings of the Spirit, hastened on to future events, which he would again describe more fully hereafter; and that, when he had arrived at the brink of the consummation of all things, he suddenly returned, either to the first age of Christianity, or to some intermediate point; and then, beginning, as it were, from a fresh source, travelled down by a new stream; and that this he did at several successive times.
CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH
Lectures on the Apocalypse
Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, "As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down." "Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?" He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away." Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life. When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
LUKE 21:5-28
The hugest changes were the ones that could not be seen -- that's where the real apocalypse lay: in people's hearts, their souls, their beings.
DIANNA HARDY
The Last Dragon
Christians, and some Jews, claim we're in the "end times," but they've been saying this off and on for more than two thousand years. According to Hindu cosmology, we're in the kali yuga, a dark period when the cow of history is balanced precariously on one leg, soon to topple. Then there are our new-age friends who believe that this December we're in for a global cage-rattling which, once the dust has settled, will usher in a great spiritual awakening. Most of this apocalyptic noise appears to be just wishful thinking on the part of people who find life too messy and uncertain for comfort, let alone for serenity and mirth. The truth, from my perspective, is that the world, indeed, is ending -- and is also being reborn. It's been doing that all day, every day, forever. Each time we exhale, the world ends; when we inhale, there can be, if we allow it, rebirth and spiritual renewal. It all transpires inside of us. In our consciousness, in our hearts. All the time.
TOM ROBBINS
interview, Reality Sandwich