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Purgatory Quotes

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Purgatory Quotes

“Every year, in the deep midwinter, there descends upon this world a terrible fortnight. ... every shop is a choked mass of humanity ... nerves are jangled and frayed, purses emptied to no purposes, all amusements and all occupations suspended in favor of frightful businesses with brown paper, string, letters, cards, stamps, and crammed post offices. This period is doubtless a foretaste of whatever purgatory lies in store for human creatures.”

WorldYearsHumansLyingPurposeHumanityThis WorldPeriodsTerribleCreaturesOfficePaperMassLettersStoresFavorsChristmasCardsPostsShopsBrownStringsNervesOccupationStampsAmusementPursesSuspendedPurgatoryPost OfficeFortnightMidwinter
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory. It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace.”

IfsMenHeartLongSoulBeautyVirtueToo MuchWiseFoolBlindVicesTheeParadiseDeceivingAssociatesHuntsBlastAccompanyPurgatoryFurnacesBonfire
Book:Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles
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“By marrying to soon, many individuals sacrifice their chance to struggle through this purgatory of solitude and search toward a greater sense of self-confidence. They glance at the world outside the family and with hardly a second thought grasp anxiously for a partner. In marriage they seek a substitute for the security of the family of origin and an escape from aloneness. What they do not realize is that moving so quickly from one family to another, they make it easy to transfer to the new marriage all their difficult experiences in the family of origin.”

WorldSelfMovingIndividualEasyDifficultRealizingChanceStruggleGreaterSacrificeSecuritySolitudeSelf ConfidencePartnersSubstitutesGlancesTransfersSense Of SelfMarryingPurgatorySecond ThoughtsDifficult Experiences
Author:Augustus
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“As President, I will institute a procedure in which all convicted criminals will have this brass ring will be surgically implanted into their foreheads-Americans have a right to know who they can trust. I don't care if you're 5, 6, or 7 years old, if you're a first-time offender, you're gonna go to Purgatory and it's not gonna be fun!”

IfsKnowsYearsFirstsCareFunPresidentFirst TimeDon't CareCriminalsRingsI Don't CareProceduresForeheadsInstituteOffendersBrassPurgatory
Author:Bob Backlund
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“In this life there is no purgatory; it is either hell or paradise; for to him who serves God truly, every trouble and infirmity turns into consolations, and through all kinds of trouble he has a paradise within himself even in this world: and he who does not serve God truly, and gives himself up to sensuality, has one hell in this world, and another in the next.”

WorldGivingKindDoeTurnsNextHellTroubleThis WorldAll KindsSensualityThis LifeParadiseServing GodConsolationInfirmityPurgatory
Book:If God be with Us: The Maxims of St. Philip Neri
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“Supernatural hasn't spent a lot of time on relationship stories, and this is a really nice mechanism to do that without imposing that on the forward momentum of these other stories that we're telling. In the writers' room we tend to say, "We're never going to be able to give a hell or Purgatory as good as people's imaginations," so the instinct is normally not to go there. But, we went the other way this year and said, "We are going to go there," because there's a really, really strong character thing going on down there.”

PeopleWayGivingYearsSaidCharacterStoriesAbleStrongImaginationRoomsHellNiceInstinctMechanismMomentumReally NiceImposingPurgatoryStrong CharacterForward Momentum
Author:Jeremy Carver
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“Me writing the book and the subsequent interactions that we had were actually the cap on that experience. We were still in this weird purgatory about it when I published the book. When I gave them the galleys and what ensued after that, then I understood a lot more about our relationships and what the experience meant to them. I'd never wanted to know what they thought about it at all.”

KnowsWritingStillsBookWantedUnderstoodInteractionOur RelationshipCapsPurgatory
Author:Melissa Febos
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“From the time of Dante [Alighieri], when you have the Ptolemaic universe, you had God on the outside like a hypersphere, and then in the center you have the Earth, all the seven heavens and layers, and then you have the Mount of Purgatory and Hell right in the center, and here's Satan flapping his wings and he keeps making the lake of Cocytus ice so you can't get out. So, again, where Heaven and Hell are, who the hell knows that now?”

KnowsEarthUniverseHeavenHellWingsSevenIceSatanLakesLayersHeaven And HellPurgatoryFlapping
Author:Paul Laffoley
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“The way I understood purgatory - and maybe you've got a different version - but in Chicago in the '70s, the idea was it was like detention. You had screwed up and you go over there in purgatory and you sit there until the end of days and then we'll decide. You'd made your mistake, and you were in prison, and it's not terrible and it's not great, and you feel a little crappy because you were not in the presence of God.”

WayFeelsLittlesMadeIdeasDifferentEndsMistakeTerribleUnderstoodPrisonVersionsThe End Of The DayChicagoPresence Of GodScrewed UpPurgatoryDetention
Author:George Saunders
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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.”

MenReasonChurchDarkPropertySubstancePriestsTormentSecuredPurgatory
Book:Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints
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“Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

WellsLordPurgatoryOutlander
Book:The Outlander Series 8-Book Bundle: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart's Blood
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“Sometimes I think that the amount of time you live on earth is just an inverse reflection of how good you were in a previous existence. For example, infants who die from SIDs were actually great people when they were alive for real, so they get to go to heaven after a mere five weeks in purgatory. Meanwhile anyone Willard Scott ever congratulated for turning one hundred two was obviously a terrible individual who had many many previous sins to pay for and had to spend a century in his or her own unknown purgatory even though the person seemed perfectly wholesome in this particular world.”

PeopleThinkingWorldPersonsTwoRealSometimesEarthDiesIndividualHeavenSinPayExistenceFiveAliveWeekCenturyExampleParticularAmountTerribleReflectionHundredMereInfantGreat PeoplePurgatoryInverseSids
Book:Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
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“Life would go out in a 'fraction of a second' (that was the phrase), but all night he had been realizing that time depends on clocks and the passage of light. There were no clocks and the light wouldn't change. Nobody really knew how long a second of pain could be. It might last a whole purgatory--or for ever.”

LongWholeLightMightPainLastsNightRealizingDependsClockPhrasesPassagesAll NightFractionsPurgatory
Book:The Power and the Glory
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“I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you - then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest." His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me. Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

IfsYearsWellsTwoLyingVoiceLordOne ThingCrimeBrokenArmsBalancePromiseHundredEarsEndurePunishmentBetrayedStolenLiedWithout YouI PromisePurgatoryOutlander
Book:The Outlander Series 8-Book Bundle: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart's Blood
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“He shrugged. "I was...thinking." "About what?" "The fires of purgatory." She had to sit down. He wasn't making any sense now. "What does that mean?" she asked. "Patrick told me he would walk through the fires of purgatory if he had to in order to please his wife." She went over to the bed and sat down on the side. "And?" she prodded when he didn't continue. He stripped out of his clothing and walked over to her. He pulled her to her feet and stared down to her. "And I have only just realized I would do the same for you.”

IfsThinkingMeanDoeOrderSidesWalksFireWifeFeetPleaseBedSatClothingsPurgatoryJust Realized
Author:Julie Garwood
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“Are you a vegetarian?' I ask, based on the evidence in front of me. She nods. 'Why?' 'Because I have this theory that when we die, every animal that we've eaten has a chance at eating us back. So if you're a carnivore and you add up all the animals you've eaten--well, that's a long time in purgatory, being chewed.' 'Really?' She laughs. 'No. I'm just sick of the question. I mean, I'm a vegetarian because I think it's wrong to eat other sentient creatures. And it sucks for the environment.”

IfsThinkingWellsMeanLongDiesAsksChanceAnimalLaughingEnvironmentFrontsTheoryCreaturesEatingLong TimeEvidenceSickAddVegetarianPurgatoryCarnivores
Author:David Levithan
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“[Jules] slides into a seat beside me with her hot lunch tray, sighing. “Four hours, thirty-six minutes, and twelve seconds till we’re out of purgatory for the weekend.” “Maybe later,” I murmur, still distracted by the day’s previous events. “So, let me show you how a conversation works. I say something, and then you say something back that actually relates to what I was talking about, as if you were even the least bit interested.” “Huh?” I say.”

IfsStillsShowsBitsHoursTalkingFourMinutesEventsConversationSixLet MeHotRelateThirtySeatsSecondsLunchWeekendTwelveDistractedSlidesPurgatoryTrays
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire.”

ShouldMayLife IsCertainLeftFireGreaterDegreesGood ThingsIncrediblesSavedThis LifeFaithfulCatholicismPurgatory
Author:Saint Augustine
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“In medieval times, the Church used to sell 'indulgences' for money. This amounted to paying for some number of days' remission from purgatory, and the Church literally (and with breathtaking presumption) issued signed certificates specifying the number of days off that had been purchased. . . . And of all its money-making rip-offs, the selling of indulgences must surely rank among the greatest con tricks in history. . . .”

UsedReligionChurchNumbersSellsTricksSellingMaking MoneyRipIndulgenceMedievalPresumptionDays OffCertificatesPurgatoryBreathtakingRemissionMedieval Times
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“Major League Baseball has created a Pete Rose purgatory, and that's where he is. And that's where he's always going to be. It's unfortunate that the commissioner's office has decided to allow that to be the reality. I don't think Pete would mind if they said 'No' to Pete. Pete wants them to go one way or the other and get him out of the void he's in.”

IfsThinkingWayWantMindSaidRealityOfficeMajorsDecidedBaseballRoseOne WayLeagueVoidUnfortunateThey SaidMajor LeaguePurgatoryCommissionersMajor League Baseball
Author:Mike Schmidt
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“If the politics of inaction and delay that have triumphed in this country continues for another decade, then Planetary Purgatory in the likely future facing our country before midcentury - probably in your own lifetime.”

IfsCountryLifetimeClimateDecadesOur CountryDelayInactionPurgatory
Book:Hell and high water: global warming - the solution and the politics - and what we should do
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