QuoteProject
Hell is not fire and brimstone, not a place where you are punished for lying or cheating or stealing. Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.
Stephen Levine
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Hell represents a state of discontent and longing for something different rather than a physical place of punishment.

In this quote, Stephen Levine suggests that true hell is not about the traditional images of fire and punishment, but rather the inner turmoil one experiences when desiring to be in a different situation or state of existence. It highlights the emotional and psychological suffering that arises from lack of acceptance and longing for change, implying that our own dissatisfaction can create a personal hell.

Themes

HellDiscontentLongingAcceptanceSuffering

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about embracing your current life situation.

More from Stephen Levine

Go to the truth beyond the mind. Love is the bridge.
Stephen LevineRead
In Chinese, the word for heart and mind is the same -- Hsin. For when the heart is open and the mind is clear they are of one substance, of one essence.
Stephen LevineRead
I have seen many die, surrounded by loved ones, and their last words were ‘I love you.’ There were some who could no longer speak yet with their eyes and soft smile left behind that same healing message. I have been in rooms where those who were dying made it feel like sacred ground. (26)
Stephen LevineRead
Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.
Stephen LevineRead
If there is a single definition of healing it is to enter with mercy and awareness those pains, mental and physical, from which we have withdrawn in judgment and dismay. (48)
Stephen LevineRead
I have seem even those who have long since abjured God die in grace. . . . Atheists don't use their drying to bargain for a better seat at the table; indeed they may not even believe supper is being served. They are not storing up 'merit.'; They just smile because their heart is ripe. They are kind for no particular reason; they just love.
Stephen LevineRead

Similar quotes

Everything in life depends on how that life accepts its limits.
James A. BaldwinRead
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
MontesquieuRead
Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without.
Walter PaterRead
I just know that there are plenty of people who are in terrible trouble and can't get out. And so I'm impatient with those who think that it's easy for people to get out of trouble.
Kurt VonnegutRead
When media make war against each other, it is a case of world-views in collision.
Neil PostmanRead
In almost all sciences the fundamental knowledge is either found in earliest times or is still being sought.
Friedrich NietzscheRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.