Pull quotes for a hypothetical second edition

[Rocket Man]

Low-Contrast In Nomine
"I like nice, simple situations and nice easy solutions."
"Good and Evil?" Durnik suggested.
"That's a difficult one, Durnik. I prefer 'them and us.' "
--David Eddings, King of the Murgos

[robkelk]

God’s Absence

“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain


Falling

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

[robkelk]

Free Will and Celestials

“We must believe in free will – we have no choice.”
– Isaac Bashevis Singer


Balseraphs

“His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself – that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.”
– George Orwell, 1984

[Rocket Man]

Heaven and Hell
"If you've lived a bad life, they send you to Hell. But if you've been truly wicked, they give you a tour of Heaven first ...."
--Spider Robinson

[Rocket Man]

Secret Songs
"I heard there was a secret chord,
That David played and it pleased the Lord ..."
--Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

Uriel's Trial
"And even though it all went wrong,
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah."
--Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

[robkelk]

Ethereals

"“Often,” he says, “what we take from the spirit world is only a reflection of what lies inside ourselves.”"
– Charles de Lint, The Ivory and the Horn

[Rocket Man]

Demons
"All through the day, I-Me-Mine, I-Me-Mine, I-Me-Mine,"
--George Harrison

[robkelk]

Balseraphs

“Dissimulating means drawing a veil composed of honest shadows, which does not constitute falsehood but allows truth some respite. The rose seems beautiful because at first sight it dissimulates, pretending to be so fleeting, and although it is frequently said of mortal beauty that is seems not of this earth, it is simply a corpse dissimulated by the favor of youth.”
– Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before


In Nomine and World Religions

“The Bible is literature, not dogma.”
– George Santayana, The Ethics of Spinoza

[robkelk]

Calabim

“I wanted to destroy everything beautiful I'd never have.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club


Habbalah

“Just for the record, she still loves you. She wouldn't bother to torture you if she didn't.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Diary


Lucifer

“If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club


Fate

“Maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't do. The things you don't finish.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby

[Rocket Man]

Malakim
"Hear me now, O thou bleak and unbearable world,
Thou art base and debauched as can be,
And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled,
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!"

--"I, Don Quixote" from Man of La Mancha (Wasserrman/Leigh)

Mercurians
"Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. "
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Destiny
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen

"Every damnation is poisoned with rainbows."
--Leonard Cohen

Dark Humor (or Satirical In Nomine)
"I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don't see it on TV. Irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk, the tired joke."
--Bono, U. of Penn commencement address.