His manual of heaven and hell lay open before me, and I could perceive my nothingness in this scheme.

He was the most inconsiderable creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness.

To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell, is to be banished from humanity.

To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is “remains.” To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or “damned ghost” – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will.

You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.

God, in his infinite wisdom, hid Hell in the middle of Paradise, to keep us on our toes.