In the world it is little comprehended what love is; and yet it is man's very life. That this is little comprehended is evident from the common saying "What is love?" What it is, is not known for the reason that love is not manifest to the understanding, and the understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven.

Emanuel Swedenborg

Categorized in : Men Love Is Knows

Worship does not consist in prayers and in external devotion, but in a life of kindness.

Emanuel Swedenborg

prayer doe kindness

Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do.

Emanuel Swedenborg

kindness inspirational life

People who have intended and loved what is evil in the world intend and love what is evil in the other life, and then they no longer allow themselves to be led away from it. This is why people who are absorbed in evil are connected to hell and actually are there in spirit; and after death they crave above all to be where their evil is. So after death, it is we, not the Lord, who cast ourselves into hell.

Emanuel Swedenborg

and-love evil people

Heaven is not located on high, but where the good of love is, and this resides within a person, wherever he or she might be.

Emanuel Swedenborg

might love-is heaven

Peace has in it trust in the Lord, that He governs all things, provides all things, and leads to a good end.

Emanuel Swedenborg

trust faith god

Our love is our life itself. What our love is like determines how we live and therefore everything about what we are as human beings.

Emanuel Swedenborg

our-love determine love-is

Every single moment of a person's life, both of the understanding and of the will, is a new beginning.

Emanuel Swedenborg

new-beginnings single-mom understanding

A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothing.

Emanuel Swedenborg

persons evil doe

We are all spirits inwardly. This is what's alive in the body, not the body on its own.

Emanuel Swedenborg

alive body spirit

Conscience is God's presence in humans.

Emanuel Swedenborg

gods-presence conscience humans

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

Emanuel Swedenborg

spiritual love life

God loves every one of us but cannot directly benefit us; he can benefit us only indirectly through each other. For this reason he inspires us with his love

Emanuel Swedenborg

his-love benefits inspire

If we would accept heaven's life, we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs. In this way, we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven. This is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation, that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or totters until it collapses.

Emanuel Swedenborg

spiritual heaven mean

For those who trust in the Divine all things are moving towards an everlasting state of happiness, and no matter what happens at any time to them, it contributes to that state.

Emanuel Swedenborg

divine matter moving

Love comes into being through useful service to others.

Emanuel Swedenborg

service-to-others

Men live a moral life, either from regard to the Diving Being, or from regard to the opinion of the people in the world; and when a moral life is practised out of regard to the Divine Being, it is a spiritual life. Both appear alike in their outward form; but in their inward, they are completely different. The one saves a man, but the other does not; for he that leads a moral life out of regard to the Divine Being is led by him, but he who does so from regard to the opinion of people in the world is led by himself.

Emanuel Swedenborg

good-night spiritual men

A person's life from infancy to old age is nothing else than an advance from the world towards heaven, the last stage of which is death; the actual transition from one life to the next.

Emanuel Swedenborg

transition age heaven

Charity is like warmth in springtime or summer that causes grass, plants, and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual warmth, nothing grows.

Emanuel Swedenborg

spiritual summer tree

Every man is received in heaven who receives heaven in himself while in the world, and he is excluded who does not.

Emanuel Swedenborg

doe men heaven

Everything good or true that the angels inspire in us is God's, so God is constantly talking to us. He talks very differently, though, to one person than to another.

Emanuel Swedenborg

angel talking inspire