Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes

If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms.

If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downward to be a devil.

The only thing that really matters now is whether man can climb up to a higher moral level, to a higher plane of consciousness, in order to be equal to the superhuman powers which the fallen angels have played into his hands. But he can make no progress until he becomes very much better acquainted with his own nature.

The lights of prayer that make us imagine we are beginning to be angels are sometimes only signs that we are finally beginning to be men. We do not have a high enough opinion of our own nature. We think we are at the gates of heaven and we are only just beginning to come into our own realm as free and intelligent beings.

Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.

The way you become divine is to become wholly human.

And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?

This devil loves mankind because men are going to always make the choice that will send him into ascendancy. He's been winning the game for a long time.

A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.

Since the cosmic process of evolution is amoral, there is no guarantee that good will win out over evil, that human society will thrive rather than fail.

The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.

It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.

There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely evil, but grows either as he holds himself up in virtue or lets himself slide to viciousness.

What a vile and abject thing is man if he do not raise himself above humanity.

As there is much beast and some devil in man, so is there some angel and some God in him. The beast and the devil may be conquered, but in this life never destroyed.

A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell. Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, laziness, brutality, and genius. Yes, even a great mind can be a shell and choke the spark.

If reason dominates in man, he rises higher than angels. If lust overpowers man, he descends lower than the beast.

Calvin: Do you believe in the Devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I'm not sure man needs the help.

The place to begin the task of eliminating evil is within yourself.

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.

The devil could change. He was once an angel and may be evolving still.

Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.