Devil

"Piru on hyvä taijemaalari. (Ähtäri) (KVL)"

"Parempi tuttu paha kuin tuntematon hyvä. (Kuusamo, Northern Bothnia) (SPS)"

"Auch die Kultur, die alle Welt beleckt, Hat auf den Teufel sich erstreckt."

"Verflucht wer mit dem Teufel spielt."

"Anathematizing every manifestation of occult nature outside the precincts of the Church, the clergy — notwithstanding proofs to the contrary — call it "the work of Satan," "the snares of the fallen angels," who "rush in and out from the bottomless pit," mentioned by John in his kabalistic Revelation, "from whence arises a smoke as the smoke of a great furnace... Intoxicated by its fumes, around this pit are daily gathering millions of Spiritualists, to worship at 'the Abyss of Baal.' (Part II, Chapter I)"

"Monsieur and excellent Friend:"

"What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly."

"The blasphemous horrors perpetrated by Paganism, its phallic worship, thaumaturgical wonders wrought by Satan, human sacrifices, incantations, witchcraft, magic, and sorcery are recalled and demonism is confronted with spiritualism for mutual recognition and identification. Our modern demonologists conveniently overlook a few insignificant details, among which is the undeniable presence of heathen phallism in the Christian symbols. (Part II, Chapter I)"

"The Satanic school."

"The bane of all that dread the Devil!"

"When the devil drives, needs must. (Needs must when the devil drives.)"

"Therefore it behooveth hire a full long spoon That shal ete with a feend."

"The Christians were the first to make the existence of Satan a dogma of the Church. And once that she had established it, she had to struggle for over 1,700 years for the repression of a mysterious force which it was her policy to make appear of diabolical origin. Unfortunately, in manifesting itself, this force invariably tends to upset such a belief by the ridiculous discrepancy it presents between the alleged cause and the effects. If the clergy have not over-estimated the real power of the "Arch-Enemy of God," it must be confessed that he takes mighty precautions against being recognized as the "Prince of Darkness" who aims at our souls. If modern "spirits" are devils at all, as preached by the clergy, then they can only be those "poor" or "stupid devils" whom Max Muller describes as appearing so often in the German and Norwegian tales. (Part II, Chapter I)"

"Notwithstanding this, the clergy fear above all to be forced to relinquish this hold on humanity. They are not willing to let us judge of the tree by its fruits, for that might sometimes force them into dangerous dilemmas. They refuse, likewise, to admit, with unprejudiced people, that the phenomena of Spiritualism has unquestionably spiritualized and reclaimed from evil courses many an indomitable atheist and skeptic. But, as they confess themselves, what is the use in a Pope, if there is no Devil? (Part II, Chapter I) (Part Two, Chapter 1)"

"And so Rome sends her ablest advocates and preachers to the rescue of those perishing in "the bottomless pit." Rome employs her cleverest writers for this purpose — albeit they all indignantly deny the accusation — and in the preface to every book put forth by the prolific des Mousseaux, the French Tertullian of our century, we find undeniable proofs of the fact. Among other certificates of ecclesiastical approval, every volume is ornamented with the text of a certain original letter addressed to the very pious author by the world-known Father Ventura de Raulica, of Rome. Few are those who have not heard this famous name. It is the name of one of the chief pillars of the Latin Church, the ex-General of the Order of the Theatins, Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Examiner of Bishops, and of the Roman Clergy, etc., etc., etc. This strikingly characteristic document will remain to astonish future generations by its spirit of unsophisticated demonolatry and unblushing sincerity. We translate a fragment verbatim, and by thus helping its circulation hope to merit the blessings of Mother Church:"

"Renounce the Devil and all his works."

"Nein, nein! Der Teufel ist ein Egoist Und thut nicht leicht um Gottes Willen, Was einem Andern nützlich ist."

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

"Swings the scaly horror of his folded tail."

"From his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-walking the Devil is gone, To look at his little snug farm of the world, And see how his stock went on."

"Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you."

"Bid the Devil take the slowest."

"The devil, my friends, is a woman just now. 'Tis a woman that reigns in Hell."

"The king of terrors."

"I call'd the devil, and he came, And with wonder his form did I closely scan; He is not ugly, and is not lame, But really a handsome and charming man. A man in the prime of life is the devil, Obliging, a man of the world, and civil; A diplomatist too, well skill'd in debate, He talks quite glibly of church and state."

"Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick (Though he gave his name to our Old Nick)."

"Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil."

"Why should the devil have all the good tunes?"

"Even a most evil man is better than the devil!"

"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form."

"And bid the devil take the hin'most."

"How did the Devil come? When first attack?"

"Deus est Diabolus inversus."

"While the lime-burner was struggling with the horror of these thoughts, Ethan Brand rose from the log, and flung open the door of the kiln. The action was in such accordance with the idea in Bertram's mind, that he almost expected to see the Evil One issue forth, red-hot, from the raging furnace. Hold! hold!" cried he, with a tremulous attempt to laugh; for he was ashamed of his fears, although they overmastered him. "Don't, for mercy's sake, bring out your Devil now!" "Man!" sternly replied Ethan Brand, "what need have I of the Devil? I have left him behind me, on my track. It is with such half-way sinners as you that he busies himself. ..." He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more wood, and bent forward to gaze into the hollow prison-house of the fire, regardless of the fierce glow that reddened his face. ..."I have looked," said he, "into many a human heart that was seven times hotter with sinful passions than yonder furnace is with fire. But I found not there what I sought. No, not the Unpardonable Sin!""

"The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies."

"You see, Mr. Simpson—a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!"

"One is always wrong to open a conversation with the devil, for, however he goes about it, he always insists on having the last word."

"Every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all."

"The devil, you see, is that friend who never stays with us to the end."

"The Bible is very vague. Bits and pieces from lots of now-defunct religions got synthesized: The cloven feet from Pan, the horns from the gods of various cults in the near east. In the 15th and 16th century, these solidified into this personification of evil, seen as the great enemy of Christ, the Church, and mankind: a horned, bestial, furry figure."

"Lucifer: Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spent my entire days sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commits acts they would otherwise find repulsive. 'The devil made me do it.' I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them."

"The infernal serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind."

"Again the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him: “All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me.”"

"The devil is chained. He can bark, but he cannot bite, unless we go up to him and let him do so."

"His form had yet not lost All his original brightness, nor appear'd Less than arch-angel ruined, and th' excess Of glory obscured."

"From morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star."

"Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence."

"Black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand."

"Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiucus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war."

"William Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that! Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"