Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish – a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow – to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested ... Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll. Hunter S Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to Heaven. Tupac Shakur
There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
There is no Heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. Stephen Hawking
Heaven is the most angelically dull place in all creation. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
Nobody could stand an eternity of Heaven. ibid.
As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if they’re convinced that they’ll eventually escape to some resort in the sky where lifeguards are superfluous and the pool never closes. Moreover, the faithful are usually willing to risk their skins in whatever military adventure their government may currently be promoting. Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
Will Heaven be like Swansea? The League of Gentlemen s2e6: Royston Vasey and the Monster from Hell, Tubbs, BBC 2000
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Psalms 139:8
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it. Isaiah 45:8
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23
For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Matthew 12:25
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Matthew 22:30
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. Luke 13:28
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Luke 14:15
The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Luke 20:34&35
As for such, theirs will be Gardens of Eden, wherein rivers flow beneath them; therein they will be given armlets of gold and will wear green robes of finest silk and gold embroidery, reclining upon throne therein. Blest the reward, and fair the resting-place! Koran 18:31
The idea of Heaven, a blissful realm where everyone and everything exists in a state of joyful harmony has been a constant pre-human occupation. For some it exists somewhere in the sky. For others it’s a vision of nature itself. And there are those who hold it to be right here on Earth. Tim Marlow: Judgement Day: Images of Heaven and Hell: Heaven, 2004
Has Heaven always been a place of fluffy clouds? ibid.
The ancient Egyptian concept of Heaven known as the Field of Reeds was certainly more down to Earth. ibid.
The Elysian Fields which first emerged in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey is imagined as a paradise of green meadows. ibid.
Buddhism ... The six stages of Samsara ... What I would call Heaven they would call enlightenment. ibid.
Signorelli’s image of Heaven is florid and lyrical. ibid.
The relationship between Heaven and Nature is an enduring one. ibid.
In Arabic the word for Heaven is Jannah which means literally, Garden. ibid.
Heaven as a place of familiarity, a place of reunion ... The British painter Stanley Spencer. In this painting completed in 1927 we see Spencer’s imagined version of the Resurrection. ibid.
64,726. Is there a heaven? Field of Dreams ***** 1989 starring Kevin Costner & Ray Liotta & Burt Lancaster & Amy Madigan & James Earl Jones & Timothy Busfield & Dwier Brown & Frank Whaley & Fern Persons et al, director Phil Alden Robinson, Costner
I don’t know if there is a heaven. I’m suspicious. Derek s2e6, BBC 2014
They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth. George R R Martin
Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere. Mae West
‘Well, the vicar goes about telling the Idlers that it’s quite right for them to do nothing, and that God meant them to have nearly everything that is made by those who work. In fact, he tells them that God made the poor for the use of the rich. Then he goes to the workers and tells them that God meant them to work very hard and to give all the good things they make to those who do nothing, and that they should be very thankful to God and to the idlers for being allowed to have even the very worst food to eat and the rags, and broken boots to wear. He also tells them they mustn’t grumble, or be discontented because they’re poor in this world, but that they must wait till they’re dead, and then God will reward them by letting them go to a place called heaven.’ Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
At age five or six these ideas are a bit overwhelming, frightening … Do heaven and hell await us in the afterlife or are they here and now? Morgan Freeman, The Story of God s2e2: Heaven and Hell, National Geographic 2017