Several things can be said about Swedenborg’s visions of heaven and hell, except that they are the work of a deceitful spirit. Swedenborg possesses the supreme virtue of sincerity: he does not try to delude, he does not try to hide, he opens his soul and tries to express himself as clearly as possible—that is, he is a loyal spirit. That is why, above all, he does not deserve to be ironized. In cases like this, the irony is nothing but a creeping manifestation…
According to Swedenborg, I Will Not Be Accepted Into Heaven
If the didactic explanations of this curious Emanuel Swedenborg proceed, I will not be accepted in heaven. I will not be, and I add: under no circumstances. If not heaven, then… But I reflect: do I necessarily have to be accepted somewhere? Am I forced to yearn for acceptance? Am I condemned from the start to beg for being accepted? If so, the possibility of complete rejection is excluded: someone will have to accept me—and I, naturally, will also have to accept those who accept me: all deprived of volition, condemned to forcibly join a group. Disappointing…
The Obsession With Reasoning From Every Possible Angle Is the Death…
The obsession with reasoning from every possible angle is the death of reasoning: there are no limits to thought, the points of view are never exhausted. This is why any treatise or system that claims to be complete is doomed to failure from the start. Broad reasoning requires the confrontation of opposing propositions and invariably cancels them out one by one when approached with impartiality. If broadens the work, it broadens by annihilating itself and showing itself to be increasingly flawed. For every valid reasoning there is an equally valid contrary reasoning. If the thinker opts for comprehensiveness, he must necessarily give up assertiveness—and, consequently, potency.
Morally Man Measures Himself Less by His Affinities…
Morally, man is measured less by his affinities than by his repulsions. We know him by looking at what he rejects or, in other words, what is contrary to his character. His friends tell less about him than his adversaries, what he does less than what he peremptorily refuses to do. Moral sympathizes with caution and rejects with convulsing nerves.