W. H. Auden Quotes

Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.

A man can't be taken to hell, or sent to hell: you can only get there on your own steam.

All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.

What does God hate or punish except self-will? Let self-will cease, and there will be no hell. On what does that fire feed except on self-will?

God will never send anybody to hell. If man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice.

Be warned, therefore, that one does not go to hell to light a cigarette.

I think hell's a real place where real people spend a real eternity.

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

In a very Christian way, as far as I’m concerned, he can go to hell.

There is no redemption from hell.

When we suffer, it is because of our own acts; God is not to be blamed for it.

I'm going to hell, ah... but you're laughing, so you're coming.

Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.

If you look at any religious description of hell, it is the same as human society, the way we dream. Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends.

The Lord casts no one down in Hell, but the spirit casts himself hither.

That's my punishment in hell, shoveling horseshit.

This temporal fire is but a painted fire in respect of that penetrating and real fire in hell.

Any god who can invent hell is no candidate for the Salvation Army

In Heaven, there are no debts - all have been paid, one way or another - but in Hell there's nothing but debts, and a great deal of payment is exacted, though you can't ever get all paid up. You have to pay, and pay, and keep on paying. So Hell is like an infernal maxed-out credit card that multiplies the charges endlessly.

If there were no hell, we would be like the animals. No hell, no dignity.

The doors of heaven and hell are adjacent and identical.

Anyone who does anything for pleasure to indulge his selfish soul will surely burn in Hell.

Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.

Which is worse, hell or nothing?

A lot of people say, well how can a loving God send anyone to hell? First of all God doesn't send anyone to hell. If we go to hell, it's by our own choice. But when somebody says to me, how can a loving God allow anyone to go to hell, I'll turn around and say, "Well how can a holy, just, righteous God allow sin into His presence?"