The Kingdom of God – an enigma Jesus did not attempt to simplify. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians I, PBS 1998
Heaven, Hell and everlasting life – you’re not meant to take it seriously, Ted. Father Ted s1e1: Good Luck, Father Ted, Dougal, Channel 4 1995
Am I in Heaven? Transporter 3 2008 starring Jason Statham & Francois Berleand & Natalya Rudakova & Robert Knepper & Jeroen Krabbe & David Atrakchi & Eriq Ebouaney et al, director Olivier Megaton, her on waking to Frank
I have served my human master and now I can look forward to my reward in silicon heaven. Red Dwarf s3e6: The Last Day, Kryten to Rimmer, BBC 1989
And when I arrive at the gates of the Divine Treasury the registrar will accept my bribe and usher me inside, and do you know why? Because I’d died exactly the way I lived – as a Ferengi. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s4e25: Body Parts
Quark: What makes you think she wants to spend eternity in Sto-Vo-Kor? I know I wouldn’t. Imagine what it must be like. Hordes of rampaging Klingons – fighting and singing, sweating and belching.
O’Brien: Sound like this place on a Saturday night.
Quark: Exactly! Would you want to spend eternity here? Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s7e1: Image in the Sand
Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue. David Hume
In heaven all the interesting people are missing. 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God, Friedrich Nietzsche
I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse. Isaac Asimov
In the past the need for a hierarchical form of society has been the doctrine specifically of the High. It had been preached by kings and aristocrats and the priests, lawyers and the like who were parasitical upon them, and it had generally been softened by promises of an imaginary world beyond the grave. George Orwell, 1984
After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven? E M Forster, Maurice
Rest content, and give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright lustre of the court, and gone heavily even on the best-seeming ground ... I know it bringeth little comfort on earth; and he is, I reckon, no wise man that looketh this way to Heaven. Robert Cecil, 1563-1612, letter to John Harington
Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die. Thomas Henry Delaney
I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, and lights around the shore. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882
There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign. Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707
I’d like to go to Heaven but if Jeffrey Archer’s there I want to go to Lewisham. Spike Milligan, The Sun Farewell Milligoon, tribute February 2002
Does Heaven say anything. The four seasons run their course and all things are produced. Does Heaven say anything? Confucius, 551-479 B.C.
Heaven has no rage, like love to hatred turned,
Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorned. William Congreve, 1670-1729
Heaven’s ebon vault, studded with stars unutterably bright, through which the moon’s unclouded grandeur rolls, seems like a canopy which love has spread to curtain her sleeping world. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab
We have over thirty heavens and thirty hells ... A Buddhist goes to Heaven or to Hell because of what they think, what they say, what they do. Reverend Kusala Bhikshu, Buddhist minister
Just Molly and me
And baby makes three
We hurry to my Blue Heaven. Walter Donaldson & George Whiting, My Blue Heaven
There is no concept of Heaven or Hell anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. Professor James D Tabor
Is it any better in Heaven, my friend Ford,
Than you found it in Provence? William Carlos Williams, To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven, 1944
The Elysium Fields provided a great deal of picture and word imagery for the later Jewish period and for the Christians. Because the Elysium Fields was a place where the great heroes, the really outstanding people, were taken up to. Jeffrey Burton Russell, author A History of Heaven
Images of Heaven in Islam are diverse. One that is widely known is that the righteous martyr – male – would receive seventy-two virgins in Heaven. And each would have its own room in a vast palace. And the righteous Muslim would move from one to the next. J Edward Wright, author The Early History of Heaven
Shakespeare called it ‘the undiscovered country’. We call it Heaven. It represents everything that Hell does not. It has influenced politics and decided the course of nations. For many Heaven determines how they live their lives and how they die. Does Heaven exist? If it does, what’s Heaven like, and who will get to go there? Heaven: Beyond the Grave, 2006
In the summer of 1999 ten-year-old Louise Mendenhall fell into a diabetic coma. The doctors predicted Louise would not survive the night. But they were wrong. Denise’s awakening appeared to be a miracle. It was just the beginning. After weeks of recovery she reported to her parents that during the three days she was unconscious she visited Heaven. Denise’s brush with death is not unusual. Every day hundreds of people in the United States survive a near-death experience. Denise specifically remembers being in a place called Heaven. And can describe it in vivid detail. ibid.
America today is a deeply religious country. Heaven it seems is on the minds of at least 81% of Americans, the number that identify themselves to a specific faith. ibid.
There was kind of like a field. And it was so beautiful. And there is like a waterfall, and like a little lake at the bottom. And like all these animals, and there are flowers. And one thing I really do remember is that the flowers made music. And there were colours over there we don’t have over here. Louise Mendenhall
The Egyptians built monuments to the dead far larger than any to the living. Mysteries of the Bible s3e9: Heaven & Hell, National Geographic 1996
Most cultures believe in a Heaven ... Many cultures have a Hell. ibid.
None has developed the broad range of specific punishments as introduced in the New Testament. ibid.
The Divine Comedy would be the first major work written in vernacular Italian. ibid.
Those who committed suicide suffered alongside murderers. ibid.
Dudley Moore: Is this heaven, Peter?
Peter Cook: Bloody hell! Pete & Dud, Not Only ... But Also
Las Vegas looks the way you’d imagine Heaven must look at night. Chuck Palahniuk
There is only one guarantee: none of us will see Heaven. Road To Perdition 2002 starring Tom Hanks & Tyler Hoetchlin & Jude Law & Paul Newman & Daniel Craig & Stanley Tucci & Jennifer Jason Leigh & Anthony LaPaglia et al, director Sam Mendes, Rooney
Step away from the others, and I shall tell you the mysteries of the Kingdom. It is a great and boundless realm which no eye of an angel has even seen, no thought of heart has ever contemplated. Gospel of Judas
Heaven – I’m in Heaven –
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak;
And I seem to find the happiness I seek –
When we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek. Irving Berlin, Cheek-to-Cheek, from Top Hat 1935
Men and women will retain their sex in Heaven. Pope John Paul II
O what a Heaven is love! O what a Hell! Thomas Dekker