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Purgatory Quotes

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Purgatory Quotes

“Middle School is such a perfect name for middle school. If I were told that there was a commission for nationwide title submissions for the grades between elementary and high and a committee was appointed to boil down the entries in search of a name that was simple, public friendly, easy to spell, syllabically chantable (Mid-dle-school! Mid-dle-school!) devoid of possible copyright infringement, and most importantly, evocative of the emotion of being In Limbo, and Middle School was the out and out winner, I would believe that.”

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Book:Handsome Vanilla
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“From The Darkest Depths by Stewart Stafford Salvation swallowed in a bleak abyss, Of impossibly lost and betrayed souls, Swarming screams of frantic contrition, Clawing collisions in a drowning grip. Drops of reason cascade down the vortex, Falling infinitely through the fallen infamy, Snaking doubt constructing every delusion, Of false idols, prophets, and graven images. Scaling its putrescent and lacerating walls, Is a repentant struggle beyond endurance, Then distant dawn appears, growing nearer, Darkness fades and a basking reign forms. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved”

HopeHellDespairNightmareLost SoulsPurgatoryVortexLight At The End Of The TunnelSurreal PoetryDante S Inferno
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“After hundreds of years, if there were so many sinners left, what had the Inquisition accomplished? They might root out Jews and Muslims and Erasmists and alumbrados, but then what was left? The machine had been built to consume heresy and impiety, so would it simply keep finding heresy and impiety to feed on? Valentina's soul certainly hadn't been saved. The vicar's threats hadn't made her good, only scared--and not of purgatory. All this spectacle, all this misery, and she didn't fear hell more than being shut up in a house with her lawful husband.”

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Book:The Familiar
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“For Having Offended Thee by Stewart Stafford A rebirth in my other kingdom, Deafening choruses of mute vampires, Stowaway's arrival not of my choice, Treading water on stranger's ground. The crunching gravel of past sins, Fine bone dust of wasted chances, Weighed down at Purgatory's door, The gatekeepers nod and admit me. A hurricane swirl of screaming souls, Housed within Infinity's planetarium, Whispers, pleas, a drowning outcry, Metaphysical smothering of bodily errs. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

JudgmentGuiltJudgementAfterlifeMetaphysicalSurrealPurgatoryDark PoetryPast SinsWasted Chances
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Then again, she could actually be dead, and this place was purgatory or Hell. She settled on purgatory because she always believed Hell would not offer rewards for good behavior. Limbo was probably the best answer. She was awaiting judgment, and if she passed her tests or “sessions,” she could cross over to the real afterlife. It was a strange concept for her because she was not Catholic. She was some variant of Protestant--something that did not believe in Limbo but believed in fainting and speaking in tongues. Bridget had not been to church since her grandmother died because the young woman refused to accept the idea that One-Day-a-Week Christians were better than those who failed to attend church at all. Why go to a house of worship to listen to the high and mighty talk about what people in town did with their week? In Bridget’s eyes, this concept of judgment was entirely un-Christian. Furthermore, she had lots of gay friends, and she believed they should be allowed to marry. That was a concept with which members of her congregation disagreed. Maybe this was purgatory, and she was being tested for her support of homosexuality or her lack of faith. She really had no idea.”

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Book:Captive
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“He didn’t care if he would be a villain in Alastor’s eyes. He had made peace with the fact a long time ago that he cannot control the way someone narrates their side of the story. The world had forced him to grow up he never knew what being truly free and careless was. He was the grandchild of the witches they burnt, so he would make the world a purgatory so his soul could feel warm.”

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Book:Of Vengeance and Ashes
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“Tale of the Holy Hitchhiker by Stewart Stafford A motorist drives by the Blue Church, Of left-handed compliments, And omnipresent righteous sins, Where the Holy Hitchhiker dwells. Waiting for God at the stop sign, No thumbs, he blesses passing cars, Chanting his destination's directions, Then going into silent meditation. A fated pause at the railway crossing, Purgatory train takes an eternity to go by, Time for confessional contemplation, Swift redemption with the accelerator. Thankful prayers at the journey's end, Payment made as alms for the poor, Then a smile as he vanishes into light, The driver sees the Blue Church again. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

ChurchJourneySurrealCarsPurgatoryHitchhikingSurreal PoetryGhostly EncounterInto The LightHitchiker
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Her consciousness emerges within when the beast of the darkness allows them. This beast was a conjuration of the billion innocent souls lost to the structure of modernization. He was an archetype that transcended time and reality, a governing force as natural as nature itself, and yet this darkness was a new kind, born out of technology only apparent in the last few hundred years.”

Science FictionOppressionDystopianQuantum MechanicsPurgatoryClassismAlternate UniverseStructural Violence
Book:Wild Man: The Burnem story
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“Retirement homes are never lovely places. The food is usually overcooked, the carpet stained from overactive bowels, and the smell of hand lotion, cheap perfume, and urine never really leaves the place, no matter how many times the beds are washed and the walls are scrubbed. They are a place of holding, a purgatory to the not-yet-dead.”

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Book:It's Always Sunny at the Golden Palms: A Short Story
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“God has not given us time in order that we may play with it as we please. Time is the vessel with which we must draw from the well of life everlasting. Whoever does not bring it back full is made to feel the questioning glance of the Lord who says: "What hast thou done with those treasures of grace? I have commanded thee to bring this vessel back to me full - and thou hast gone thy own ways, hast forgotten the command of thy God, hast even broken the beautiful, holy vessel. And what dost thou now bring back?" Then the soul sinks down before God; it now lies before the Everlasting Judge. It can no longer run away from His words, as perhaps it did during life. There it lies before the Almighty, returning only fragments to Him - the fragments of so many shattered graces and so much lost time. Then the soul says to God: "Make it whole again!" If the soul was repentant at death, it will say this with great remorse. Then the Savior is merciful and says: "Come here! In Purgatory we will make it whole again." But this cannot be done without suffering; for the soul is softened by repentance, and it is by repentance that expiation must be made.”

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Book:The Secrets of Purgatory: Reminiscences of a Soul in Purgatory
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“Since both the departed saints and we ourselves are in Christ, we share with them in the 'communion of saints.' They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we celebrate the Eucharist they are there with us, along with the angels and archangels. Why then should we not pray for and with them? The reason the Reformers and their successors did their best to outlaw praying for the dead was because that had been so bound up with the notion of purgatory and the need to get people out of it as soon as possible. Once we rule out purgatory, I see no reason why we should not pray for and with the dead and every reason why we should - not that they will get out of purgatory but that they will be refreshed and filled with God's joy and peace. Love passes into prayer; we still love them; why not hold them, in that love, before God?”

PrayerParadiseAfterlifePurgatoryCommunion Of SaintsPraying For The Dead
Book:Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
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“We not only do not believe that man is punished for his 'sins,' but emphatically state that there is no such thing as sin. There are wrongs and injustices, but no sin. Sin, like purgatory and hell, was invented by priests, first to frighten, and then to rob the living. We do not fear these myths and curses, and that is why we devote our time and energies to help our fellow man. That is why we build educational institutions and seek, by a slow and painful process, to teach man the true nature of the universe and a proper understanding of his place as a member in society. At the same time we try to fortify his mind with courage to withstand the rebuffs, the trials and tribulations of life. That it is a difficult and arduous task no one can deny because we cannot correct all of 'God's mistakes' in one life time. As Ingersoll so succinctly states: 'Nature cannot pardon.' Remember this: You are not a depraved human being. You have no sins to atone for. There is no need for fear. There are no ghosts—holy or otherwise. Stop making yourself miserable for 'the love of God.' Drive this monster of tyrannic fear from your mind, and enjoy the inestimable freedom of an emancipated human being.”

LifeInspirationalHumanityBeliefEducationHellSocietyMoralityInjusticePunishmentTyrannyMistakesManWrongHelpEmancipationMythsPurgatoryCursesIngersollFrightenRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollRob
Book:An Atheist Manifesto
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“Wherever you go..., you'll see Heaven and Hell on every side... in us. Look for them and you'll soon know them. There on your left, Hell shuffles by, carrying a reluctant, gloomy chicken, his only comrade. There on your right, Heaven spring past, singing - a lunatic, a little too much for civilized contact. Just the way it always was.”

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Book:Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife: On the Other Side Known Commonly As "The Little Book"
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“Were the happiness of the next world as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live; and unto such as consider none hereafter, it must be more than death to die, which makes us amazed at those audacities that durst be nothing and return into their chaos again. Certainly such spirits as could contemn death, when they expected no better being after, would have scorned to live, had they known any.”

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Book:Urne Burial
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“Speak peace unto the world and good souls will stand.”

DeathSpiritSpiritualityReadingHeavenSpaceFantasyNovelHellBooksScience FictionAliensParanormalSci FiAfterlifeAngelsReadFantasy FictionScifiNovelsHeaven And HellAdultAlienPurgatoryFantasy BooksFantasy SeriesAngels And DemonsParanormal FictionScience Fiction FantasySpace And TimeAfterlife SpeculationRead BooksInterdimensionalFantasy ScifiRead Books Online
Book:Dollhead Corporation
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“How easily such a thing can become a mania, how the most normal and sensible of women once this passion to be thin is upon them, can lose completely their sense of balance and proportion and spend years dealing with this madness.”

LoveLifeSoulSelfPhilosophyRomanceMovingDeathMotherDesirePoetryTimeSpiritualityPassionFatherStrongHeavenStarsSexWomenGrowthJusticeLossSinDecisionMoneyGriefEmotionFictionBeautyFamilyMarriageCourageHellFireComedyRelationshipJourneyCrimeLonelinessHonestyDivineTrustRegretPrideDramaSadBedTravelDepressionHeartbreakMarriedRomanticLonelyPrejudiceAngerMurderTransformationAngrySuicideMadBraveSevenGreedDisappointmentDivorceHappyLustNineHealUnhappyContemporaryEsteemTriumphWomanIsolationFiftyAbandonHardshipDeepFeelingSecretsHelpBetrayHikingTrappedAgonyRemorseEroticJaneUnbearableForgiveAnorexiaRevelationDescentMountaineeringPersonalLucyUnionLiteraryEverestDysfunctionAustenPackingPurgatoryTibetPrettyJuicySonsPageantBackLovelessDanteCloudWhite CollarBronteSeparateSteamyPossessRedeemShadesPassageSummitsResurrect50KissedInauthenticityElatedEnchantBovaryAnnapurnaChatterleyEyreGasherbrum
Book:HELL HEAVEN & IN-BETWEEN: One Woman's Journey to Finding Love
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“I believe - I daily find it proved - that we can get nothing in this world worth keeping, not so much as a principle or a conviction, except out of purifying flame, or through strengthening peril. We err; we fall; we are humbled - then we walk more carefully. We greedily eat and drink poison out of the gilded cup of vice, or from the beggar's wallet of avarice; we are sickened, degraded; everything good in us rebels against us; our souls rise bitterly indignant against our bodies; there is a period of civil war; if the soul has strength, it conquers and rules thereafter.”

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Author:Charlotte Brontë
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“Atheism rises above creeds and puts Humanity upon one plane. There can be no 'chosen people' in the Atheist philosophy. There are no bended knees in Atheism; No supplications, no prayers; No sacrificial redemptions; No 'divine' revelations; No washing in the blood of the lamb; No crusades, no massacres, no holy wars; No heaven, no hell, no purgatory; No silly rewards and no vindictive punishments; No christs, and no saviors; No devils, no ghosts and no gods.”

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Book:Atheism and Other Addresses
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“I have made a solemn vow never to send my drawings because people have cheated me. In particular, just today I found... that, having done a drawing of souls in Purgatory for the Bishop of St. Gata, he, in order to spend less, commissioned another painter to do the painting using my work. If I were a man, I can't imagine it would have turned out this way.”

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Author:Artemisia Gentileschi
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“Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces back together again. That He can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with Him and can stand there in the fullness of life. Purgatory strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed, and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being.”

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Author:Pope Benedict XVI
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“God -- if he really exist -- is good, alive, self-conscious, and governs all things according to his benevolent and holy providence; but the world shows no indications of such a benevolent and holy Providence. This earth appears to be a hell, or at best a planet condemned -- a sort of purgatory: it is filled with violence, tyranny and injustice, and yet God, if he exist, is absolute sovereign, and has willed that things should be as they are! -- Therefore there is no God.”

IfsWorldShouldSelfGodShowsEarthHellAliveViolencePlanetsHolyConsciousAll ThingsAbsolutesFilledInjusticeTyrannyProvidenceSovereignSelf ConsciousIndicationThere Is No GodBenevolentPurgatory
Author:William Batchelder Greene
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“What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory; and found it more convenient to indulge his depraved appetites, and pay an exorbitant price for absolution, than listen to the suggestions of reason, and work out his own salvation: in a word, was not the separation of religion from morality the work of the priests...?”

MenReasonFoundChurchDarkPayAtheismMoralitySalvationPropertyWork OutPositive AtheismSeparationSubstancePriestsAppetiteSuggestionsTormentIndulgeConvenientSecuredDepravedPurgatoryAbsolution
Book:The Vindications: The Rights of Men and The Rights of Woman
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