80 Hell-Inspired Quotes

Welcome to a realm where words echo with intensity and evoke visions of infernal landscapes. In this carefully curated collection, we delve into the depths of literature, philosophy, and pop culture to bring you the most striking hell-inspired quotes. Whether you seek to explore the darker facets of the human psyche or simply appreciate the evocative power of well-crafted phrases, these quotes offer a profound look at one of humanity's most enduring symbols. Prepare to be captivated and provoked as you journey through 80 of the most memorable and thought-provoking reflections on hell.

1. “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

2. “Do I believe in Heaven and Hell? I do, we have them here; the world is nothing else.” - John Davidson

3. “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” - C.S. Lewis

4. “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” - Dante Alighieri

5. “All right, then, I'll go to hell.” - Mark Twain

6. “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell” - General Philip Henry Sheridan

7. “I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.” - Robert Frost

8. “The path to paradise begins in hell.” - Dante Alighieri

9. “Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!One thing at least is certain - This Life flies;One thing is certain and the rest is Lies -The Flower that once has blown forever dies.” - Omar Khayyám

10. “Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.” - Margaret Atwood

11. “The whole value of solitude depends upon oneself; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it.” - John Lubbock

12. “No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?""They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer."And what is hell? Can you tell me that?""A pit full of fire.""And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?""No, sir.""What must you do to avoid it?"I deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable: "I must keep in good health and not die.” - Charlotte Brontë

13. “This is a paradise of rising to the occasion that points out by contrast how the rest of the time most of us fall down from the heights of possibility, down into diminished selves and dismal societies. Many now do not even hope for a better society, but they recognize it when they encounter it, and that discovery shines out even through the namelessness of their experience. Others recognize it, grasp it, and make something of it, and long-term social and political transformations, both good and bad, arise from the wreckage. The door to this ear's potential paradises is in hell.” - Rebecca Solnit

14. “I have need of angels. Enough hell has swallowed me for too many years. But finally understand this--I have burned up one hundred thousand human lives already, from the strength of my pain.” - Antonin Artaud

15. “Imagine a very long time passing - and I find my way out, following someone who already knows how to leave Hell. And God says to me on Earth for the first time, "Xas!" in a tone of discovery, as if I'm a misplaced pair of spectacles or a stray dog. And he puts it to me that he wants me in Heaven. But Lucifer has doubled back - it was him I followed - to find me, where I am, in a forest, smitten, because the Lord has noticed me, and I'm overcome, as hopeless as your dog Josie whom you got rid of because she loved me.' Xas glared at Sobran. Then he drew a breath - all had been said on only three. He went on: 'Lucifer says to God the He can't have me. And at this I sit up and tell Lucifer that I didn't even think he knew my name, then say to God no thank you - very insolent this - and that Hell is endurable so long as the books keep appearing.” - Elizabeth Knox

16. “Hold back the edges of your gown, Ladies, we are going through hell.” - William Carlos Williams

17. “A journey is a fragment of Hell.” - Bruce Chatwin

18. “He supposed that even in Hell, people got an occasional sip of water, if only so they could appreciate the full horror of unrequited thirst when it set in again.” - Stephen King

19. “The fact was that, as droves of demon kings had noticed, there was a limit to what you could do to a soul with, e.g., red-hot tweezers, because even fairly evil and corrupt souls were bright enough to realize that since they didn't have the concomitant body and nerve endings attached to them there was no real reason, other than force of habit, why they should suffer excruciating agony. So they didn't. Demons went on doing it anyway, because numb and mindless stupidity is part of what being a demon is all about, but since no one was suffering they didn't enjoy it much either and the whole thing was pointless. Centuries and centuries of pointlessness.” - Terry Pratchett

20. “The monitor presently shows the Windows Blue Screen of Death, though this does not alarm him, as the BSoD is the universal screen saver in Hell.” - Robert Olen Butler

21. “I love you," Matt said.I love you, too," Maria replied. "I know that's a sin, and I'll probably go to hell for it."If I have a soul, I'll go with you," promised Matt.” - Nancy Farmer

22. “She'd grown up believing in hell in an abstract nightmare way; but west Texas had given her something more concrete upon which to dread the afterlife.” - Cherie Priest

23. “Faustus, who embraced evil and shunned righteousness, became the foremost symbol of the misuse of free will, that sublime gift from God with its inherent opportunity to choose virtue and reject iniquity. “What shall a man gain if he has the whole world and lose his soul,” (Matt. 16: v. 26) - but for a notorious name, the ethereal shadow of a career, and a brief life of fleeting pleasure with no true peace? This was the blackest and most captivating tragedy of all, few could have remained indifferent to the growing intrigue of this individual who apparently shook hands with the devil and freely chose to descend to the molten, sulphuric chasm of Hell for all eternity for so little in exchange. It is a drama that continues to fascinate today as powerfully as when Faustus first disseminated his infamous card in the Heidelberg locale to the scandal of his generation. In fine, a life of good or evil, the hope of Heaven or the despair of Hell, Faustus stands as a reminder that the choice between these two absolutes also falls to us.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

24. “I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am.” - Arthur Rimbaud

25. “To work hard, to live hard, to die hard, and then go to hell after all would be too damn hard.” - Carl Sandburg

26. “When I was little I bragged about my firefighting father: my father would go to heaven, because if he went to hell he would put out all the fires” - Jodi Picoult

27. “Because to live in a world in which no one is forgiven, where all are irredeemable, is the same as living in hell.” - Milan Kundera

28. “I'm not interested in absolute moral judgments. Just think of what it means to be a good man or a bad one. What, after all, is the measure of difference? The good guy may be 65 per cent good and 35 per cent bad—that's a very good guy. The average decent fellow might be 54 per cent good, 46 per cent bad—and the average mean spirit is the reverse. So say I'm 60 per cent bad and 40 per cent good—for that, must I suffer eternal punishment?"Heaven and Hell make no sense if the majority of humans are a complex mixture of good and evil. There's no reason to receive a reward if you're 57/43—why sit around forever in an elevated version of Club Med? That's almost impossible to contemplate.” - Norman Mailer

29. “The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on—only henceforth in my absence. (It's the second of those thoughts: the edition of the newspaper that will come out on the day after I have gone, that is the more distressing.) Much more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave. Whether it was a hellishly bad party or a party that was perfectly heavenly in every respect, the moment that it became eternal and compulsory would be the precise moment that it began to pall.” - Christopher Hitchens

30. “Though I obviously have no proof of this, the one aspect of life that seems clear to me is that good people do whatever they believe is the right thing to do. Being virtuous is hard, not easy. The idea of doing good things simply because you're good seems like a zero-sum game; I'm not even sure those actions would still qualify as 'good,' since they'd merely be a function of normal behavior. Regardless of what kind of god you believe in--a loving god, a vengeful god, a capricious god, a snooty beret-wearing French god, or whatever--one has to assume that you can't be penalized for doing the things you believe to be truly righteous and just. Certainly, this creates some pretty glaring problems: Hitler may have thought he was serving God. Stalin may have thought he was serving God (or something vaguely similar). I'm certain Osama bin Laden was positive he was serving God. It's not hard to fathom that all of those maniacs were certain that what they were doing was right. Meanwhile, I constantly do things that I know are wrong; they're not on the same scale as incinerating Jews or blowing up skyscrapers, but my motivations might be worse. I have looked directly into the eyes of a woman I loved and told her lies for no reason, except that those lies would allow me to continue having sex with another woman I cared about less. This act did not kill 20 million Russian peasants, but it might be more 'diabolical' in a literal sense. If I died and found out I was going to hell and Stalin was in heaven, I would note the irony, but I couldn't complain. I don't make the fucking rules.” - Chuck Klosterman

31. “I wish I could tell you how lonely I am. How cold and harsh it is here. Everywhere there is conflict and unkindness. I think God has forsaken this place. I believe I have seen hell and it's white, it's snow-white.” - Sandy Welch

32. “I think if Eternity held torment, its form would not be fiery rack, nor its nature, despair. I think that on a certain day amongst those days which never dawned, and will not set, an angel entered Hades — stood, shone, smiled, delivered a prophecy of conditional pardon, kindled a doubtful hope of bliss to come, not now, but at a day and hour unlooked for, revealed in his own glory and grandeur the height and compass of his promise: spoke thus — then towering, became a star, and vanished into his own Heaven. His legacy was suspense — a worse boon than despair.” - Charlotte Brontë

33. “I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.” - William Blake

34. “Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of GodAnd tasted the eternal joys of heaven,Am not tormented with ten thousand hellsIn being deprived of everlasting bliss?” - Christopher Marlowe

35. “Allaah Tabaraka wa Ta`Ala {The Absolute Divine UnNamed} DOES NOT test to "See" if you're worthy of Jannaah or Jahannam ! If only one can perceive this, one knows it is one that places oneself in either station !!” - AainaA-Ridtz A R

36. “Long hair will send you to hell!” - Hidekaz Himaruya

37. “Both Heaven and Hell are retroactive, all of one's life will eventually be known to have been one or the other.” - Sheldon Vanauken

38. “Lost in Hell,-Persephone,Take her head upon your knee;Say to her, "My dear, my dear,It is not so dreadful here.” - Edna St. Vincent Millay

39. “I tell you such fine music waits in the shadows of hell.” - Charles Bukowski

40. “How long does it take man to realize that he cannot want what he wants? You have to live in hell to see heaven.” - William S. Burroughs

41. “If you want to fight hell and the power of darkness that seek to destroy the hearts of our daughters, I know a type of spiritual warfare that creates value in a daughter's spirit. It is called "Taking your Daughter out for tea" or "Going to Her Soccer Game", and it works in direct opposition to the agenda of hell and darkness that wants to destroy their lives.” - Jim Anderson

42. “There was, no doubt, a confusion of persons in damnation: what Pantheists falsely hoped of Heaven bad men really received in Hell. They were melted down into their Master, as a lead soldier slips down and loses his shape in the ladle over the gas ring.” - C.S. Lewis

43. “Aquello está sobre las brasas de la tierra, en la mera boca del infierno. Con decirle que muchos de los que allí se mueren al llegar al infierno regresan por su cobija.” - Juan Rulfo

44. “You twitch as the darkness moves in and out of you. It crawls up your spine and nestles in your brain like an evil thought from out of nowhere, burying itself in your psyche like a starving leech looking for a vein.” - Stephen Biro

45. “There will be no redemption because the men who run this place do not want redemption. They want to be as near to hell as they can.” - COLSON WHITEHEAD

46. “Through me is the way to the city of woe. Through me is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below. Justice moved my architect supernal. I was constructed by divine power,supreme wisdom, and love primordial. Before me no created things were. Save those eternal, and eternal I abide. Abandon all hope, you who enter.” - Dante Alighieri

47. “Okay, fine. But just so you know, following me into hell means you're all definitely the sidekicks.” - Rachel Hawkins

48. “Sometimes I think about dying. And then I wonder about going to hell. And then I think that if and when I go there, the place will be completely organized and run by lost souls, with a council and a works committee and an ethics panel, and I'll feel right at home.” - Charles Sheffield

49. “In this world . . .It's Heaven when:The French are chefsThe British are policeThe Germans are engineersThe Swiss are bankersAnd the Italians are loversIt's Hell when:The English are chefsThe Germans are policeThe French are engineersThe Swiss are loversAnd the Italians are bankers.” - Hidekaz Himaruya

50. “You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.” - Margaret Atwood

51. “How miserably hypocritical, you might say, but no sooner am I offered a chance to flee Hell than I yearn to stay. Few families hold their relations as closely as do prisons. Few marriages sustain the high level of passion that exists between criminals and those who seek to bring them to justice. It’s no wonder the Zodiac Killer flirted so relentlessly with the police. Or that Jack the Ripper courted and baited detectives with his - or her - coy letters. We all wish to be pursued. We all long to be desired.” - Chuck Palahniuk

52. “.....listening means learning to hear someone's inner world and deepest feelings with far greater attention in order that we don't let our own assumptions get in the way. The dying may speak in images far more akin to dreamland than the world of everyday reality. In order to understand them we have to make adjustments to comprehend a poetic form of expression that is sometimes elusive but actually far more expressive than the world of facts.” - Robert L. Wise

53. “Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.” - Rick Riordan

54. “Shakespeare's Iago could be played as a soul in hell, driven, dark and desperate, willing to do anything, willing to use anyone, in order to escape from that hell.” - Laura Lee Guhrke

55. “The earth is neither fabulous nor paradisal. And therefore it is not hell.” - j.m.g. le clezio

56. “You turn the light on, you get all kinds of bugs.” - Rob Bell

57. “For Hell and the foul fiend that rulesGod's everlasting fiery jails(Devised by rogues, dreaded by fools),With his grim, grisly dog that keeps the door,Are senseless stories, idle tales,Dreams, whimseys, and no more.” - John Wilmot

58. “Remember you are never really alone. Although it may feel like it for very long stretches of time.” - Steven L. Peck

59. “I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.” - Blaise Pascal

60. “I know paradise has many gates, just as hell does. One has to learn to distinguish between them, or one is lost.” - Henning Mankell

61. “I have my own matches and sulphur, and I'll make my own hell.” - Rudyard Kipling

62. “Hell was grey. Dim and lifeless... I felt numb and in pain at the same time and that was not supposed to happen in heaven. But you would think that with all the queers they had sent here since time began, hell would have a better decorating job.” - J.M. Redmann

63. “I think maybe Hell is a place. But you don't have to stay anywhere forever.” - Neil Gaiman

64. “Piece of Heaven?" "No, that other place I'm going to go to for thinking what I'm thinking.” - Richelle Mead

65. “People often speak of hell, not wanting to go there, avoiding it..etc. I never had that problem because hell is a state of mind. Look around you; rape, murder, wars, hatred, envy...my friend; you're already there!!” - Sandra Chami Kassis

66. “You listen to me, and listen good!" she shouted, shocking me. "I am not evil because I have a thousand years of demon smut on my soul!" she exclaimed, the tips of her hair trembling and her face flushed. "Every time you disturb reality, nature has to balance it out. The black on your soul isn't evil, it's a promise to make up for what you have done. It's a mark, not a death sentence. And you can get rid of it given time.""Ceri, I'm sorry," I fumbled, but she wasn't listening. "You're an ignorant, foolish, stupid witch," she berated, and I cringed, my grip tightening on the copper spell pot and feeling the anger from her like a whip. "Are you saying because I carry the stink of demon magic, that I'm a bad person?""No..." I wedged in."That God will show no pity?" she said, green eyes flashing. "That because I made one mistake in fear that led to a thousand more that I will burn in hell?""No. Ceri -" I took a step forward."My soul is black," she said, her fear showing in her suddenly pale cheeks. "I'll never be rid of it all before I die, but it won't be because I'm a bad person but because I was a frightened one.” - Kim Harrison

67. “God knew our lives would be really bad sometimes. Like maybe we'd be turned into a monster and then our best friend would get killed. So he made up this story about hell, so we could always say, 'Well it could be worse. It could be hell.' And then we'd keep going.” - Michael Grant

68. “Hell had been his Vietnam. It had stamped its mark on him for all eternity, and no amount of denial or self-imposed ignorance was going to change it. Ever.” - Joe Schreiber

69. “If one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action, deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!” - George Whitefield

70. “No, this is wonderful!” Mrs. Hernandez’ face turned into a wrinkle mosaic when she smiled. “It’s not what you give, but the spirit in which you give. That’s what’s important.” Rise was on the fast track to hell, if that was the standard. Her neighbor had trouble with a heavy box, so she reached to help, thinking it might slow her descent into the fiery pit of eternal damnation.” - Dawn Jayne

71. “Just because a person successfully steers a voyage through hell doesn't mean he ever wants to sail that route again.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

72. “I thought that this must be what purgatory was like. Can't go forward. Can't go back. Awaiting some official judgment.” - Megan Miranda

73. “Hell was never God's intention. It is man's invention. It is a human-manufactured religious icon, no less idolatrous than deifying a statue.” - Carlton D. Pearson

74. “This was too much for him to handle. It was like watching memories of his life play out from a different camera angle, sometimes with new scenes added. He was living DVD extras.” - Dennis Sharpe

75. “—Si yo bajara en busca de tu alma, ni todos los querubines negros juntos podrían apartarme de ti.Un escalofrío recorrió la espalda de Julia.—Haría lo que fuera necesario por salvarte —añadió él y, en ese momento, su expresión y el tono de su voz no admitían discusión—. Incluso aunque tuviera que pasar la eternidad en el infierno con tal de lograrlo.” - Sylvain Reynard

76. “We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.” - Oswald Chambers

77. “Hope is a Heaven to keep you out of Hell. It's hard work believing that it's there.” - Ashly Lorenzana

78. “Hell means torture; torture means badness. Goodness cannot create or produce badness. Hell does not belong to God; it has been invented by the horrific and sick minded people.” - Mehmet Murat ildan

79. “Chuck Palahniuk asked which is worse: Hell or nothing. Here is my answer: Of course nothing! Because even in Hell, there is hope!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

80. “I feared the defining point of this Hell was its unrelenting uniformity, its lack of variation from type. If there was a heaven at the end of this, it must be filled with great variety, perhaps a multiplicity of intelligent species spread across universes. Yes, heaven would be as full of difference as Hell was of sameness.” - Steven L. Peck