I have never been able to soothe myself with the sugary delusions of religion; for these things stand convicted of the utmost absurdity in light of modern scientific knowledge. H. P. Lovecraft More Quotes by H. P. Lovecraft More Quotes From H. P. Lovecraft When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victim's body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods. H. P. Lovecraft dream sleep fall The cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. H. P. Lovecraft strange cat men Humour is but the faint terrestrial echo of the hideous laughter of the blind mad gods that squat leeringly and sardonically in caverns beyond the Milky Way. It is a hollow thing, sweet on the outside, but filled with the pathos of fruitless aspiration. H. P. Lovecraft echoes laughter sweet We must recognise the essential underlaying savagery in the animal called man, and return to older and sounder principles of national life and defense. We must realise that man's nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilisation is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake. H. P. Lovecraft sleep animal men Something like fear chilled me as I sat there in the small hours alone-I say alone, for one who sits by a sleeper is indeed alone; perhaps more alone than he can realise. H. P. Lovecraft sat realising hours The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window! H. P. Lovecraft body doors hands Maybe, just maybe, I should not have used the word "eldritch" so many times now that I think about it. H. P. Lovecraft used should thinking In relating the circumstances which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, I am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative. H. P. Lovecraft authenticity narrative doubt The moon is dark, and the gods dance in the night; there is terror in the sky, for upon the moon hath sunk an eclipse foretold in no books of men or of earth's gods. H. P. Lovecraft moon dark book All my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large. H. P. Lovecraft cosmos fundamentals law Behold great Whitman, whose licentious line Delights the rake, and warms the souls of swine; Whose fever'd fancy shuns the measur'd pace, And copies Ovid's filth without his grace. In his rough brain a genius might have grown, Had he not sought to play the brute alone; But void of shame, he let his wit run wild, And liv'd and wrote as Adam's bestial child. H. P. Lovecraft play running children Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous. H. P. Lovecraft hints peers sometimes It is only the inferior thinker who hastens to explain the singular and the complex by the primitive shortcut of supernaturalism. H. P. Lovecraft primitive shortcuts thinker Memory sometimes makes merciful deletions. H. P. Lovecraft merciful sometimes memories The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound - and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard subside and allow him to hear certain other fainter noises which he suspected were lurking behind them. H. P. Lovecraft darkness fear sound There was really nothing for serious men to do in cases of wild gossip, for superstitious rustics will say and believe anything. H. P. Lovecraft serious-man men believe It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to show by this statement that I am not his murderer. H. P. Lovecraft bullets my-best-friend six Rome was so mighty that it could not fall. It had to vanish in a cloud, like so many of the mythical heros of antiquity, and to receive its apotheosis among the stars before men became fully aware that it had vanished from the earth! H. P. Lovecraft stars hero fall You see them? You see the things that float and flop about you and through you ever moment of your life? You see the creatures that form what men call the pure air and the blue sky? Have I not succeeded in breaking down the barrier; have I not shown you worlds that no other living men have seen? H. P. Lovecraft air blue men Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. H. P. Lovecraft break-through keys past
