The 75 best phrases of H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, better known in the world of literature as H.P. Lovecraft, was regarded as one of the geniuses of 20th century sci-fi thriller and horror literature, creating his own mythology with his work The Myths of Cthulhu, which to this day continues to be one of the most influential elements in different works of television and literature.

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Best phrases of H.P. Lovecraft

Without a doubt, this writer was an exponent of mystery, horror and science fiction and, to remember him, we bring the best quotes from H.P. Lovecraft.

1. The oldest and strongest emotion of humanity is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown.

The most common fear is not knowing what tomorrow holds for us.

2. (...) The only thing he asks of life is not to think. For some reason, thinking is frightening to him, and he flees like a plague from anything that can stimulate his imagination.

There are people who allow themselves to be devoured by their thoughts.

3. The men of science suspect something about this world, but they ignore almost everything.

Science still doesn't explain everything.

4. I have no illusions about the precarious state of my stories and I do not expect to become a serious competitor to my favorite authors of the supernatural.

Lovecraft didn't think his stories were epic.

5. Death is merciful, since from it there is no return; but for those who return from the deepest chambers of the night, lost and conscious, there is no more peace.

Death is not always synonymous with punishment, but with relief.

6. That what lies eternal is not dead; and in the passage of eons, even death itself can die.

There are things that last for all eternity.

7. The anguished reader felt the spur of fear as art, and, exhausting it as such art, he felt that relief which, reflexology teaches us, is a magnificent reward for fixing a behavior.

Fear can be a great source of inspiration.

8. No new horror can be more terrible than the ordinary daily torture.

The routine can be tiring.

9. The man who knows the truth is beyond good and evil.

The truth is the only thing that matters.

10. Fear has dug his gruesome claws into him, and any sound makes him wince, his eyes wide, his forehead covered in sweat.

There are traumatic experiences that are difficult to overcome.

11. The sages interpret dreams, and the gods laugh.

Will all dreams have any meaning?

12. The appeal of the ghostly macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life.

The magic behind Lovecraft's books is that it makes us imagine.

13. May the merciful gods, if they do exist, protect those hours when no power of the Will, nor drugs invented by the ingenuity of man, can keep me from dream!

A peculiar reflection on the part of the author.

14. My time is short and I must complete as much as I can before being carried away by the voice that always calls me.

Life is not eternal, so take advantage of it.

15. In literature, terror has continued to provide a motive.

Terror is highly coveted in literature.

16. The man who knows the truth has understood that illusion is the only reality and that substance is the great impostor.

Our perspective of the world depends on how we interpret the experiences we live.

17. Who knows the end? What has risen can sink, and what has sunk can rise.

Is there really an ending?

18. What a man does for payment is of little importance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument that responds to the beauty of the world, is everything!

Although money is important, satisfaction is what fulfills us the most.

19. Neither death, nor doom, nor anxiety can produce the unbearable despair that results from losing one's identity.

When we no longer know who we are, everything turns into chaos.

20. Even when the characters are supposed to be used to the extraordinary, I try to weave an air of wonder and impression corresponding to what the reader should feel.

Talking about his writing.

21. The broader-minded men know that there is no clear distinction between the real and the unreal.

There are unreal things that we believe to be true.

22. I have evoked the demons and the dead.

Referring to the creatures in their stories.

23. Science had eliminated my belief in the supernatural, and the truth for the moment captivated me more than dreams.

For Lovecraft, the supernatural had a charm that he appreciated more than anything else.

24. Disgust waits and dreams in the depths, and decay spreads through the tottering cities of men.

A fragment about a lost society.

25. I always know that I am a stranger; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.

Without a doubt, no one has or will have the Lovecraft style.

26. All things seem what they seem only by virtue of the delicate psychic and mental instruments of each individual.

Another phrase that reminds us that, for each person, reality is different in his eyes.

27. A casual style ruins any serious fantasy.

That is why Lovecraft opted for his own style.

28. I have invoked the ghosts of my ancestors, giving them a real and visible appearance on the tops of the temples built to reach the stars and touch the lowest cavities of Hades.

A reference to the creatures that we can appreciate in his books.

29. The primitive terrors became the antidote to the last terror.

Does a nail pull out another nail with fear too?

30. Nor should we believe that man is the oldest or the last of the masters of the earth, or that this combination of life and substance runs alone through the universe.

Life goes beyond the appearance of man on earth.

31. Our brains deliberately make us forget things, to prevent insanity.

A very curious reality.

32. The prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of clairvoyance that pierce the common veil of clear empiricism.

Materialism killing empiricism.

33. I took advantage of the shadows that haunt from one world to another to sow death and madness.

Talking about the inspiration for his books.

34. The basis of all true cosmic horror is the violation of the order of nature, and the deepest violations are always the least concrete and describable.

Where nonsense can exist. In the Lovecraft books.

35. Among the anguish of the days that followed is the greatest torture: ineffability.

For each person, suffering is different.

36. The reason the time factor plays such an important role in many of my stories is because it is an element that lives in my brain and that I consider to be the most profound, dramatic and terrible thing in the world. universe.

Lovecraft expresses his fear that his time is coming to an end.

37. Only poetry or madness could do the noises justice.

Chaos can also become art.

38. My books have lost their light and rest on the shelves as if they were dead sleeping animals.

Lovecraft believed that the magic in his works was not eternal.

39. My pace and way of writing vary a lot in different cases, but I always work better at night.

Each writer has his own working formula.

40. The Great Ancients were, the Great Ancients are, and the Great Ancients will be. We do not know anything about space except through them.

An expression about the writer's beliefs.

41. The ignorant and the deluded are ideal, I think, in a strange way to be envied.

Each one chooses the illusion in which to live.

42. Life has never interested me as much as escaping from life.

As we can see, the writer did not have a great zest for life.

43. I will never be able to explain what I saw and knew during those hours of impious exploration, for lack of symbols and the ability to suggest languages.

There are things that cannot be explained in words.

44. If you throw a stick, the subservient dog wheezes and stumbles to bring it back to you. Do the same in front of a cat, and he will look at you with an amused air, polite coldness and a little boredom.

The difference between cats and dogs for lovecraft.

45. I am sick of the voices that I hear now: they seem like the voices of my family, abandoned behind me so many years ago that it is impossible to conceive that it surrounds me.

Apparently, the writer lived tormented by the memories and regrets of him.

46. I never write if I cannot be spontaneous: expressing an already existing feeling that requires crystallization.

Spontaneity was a key element for Lovecraft.

47. Children will always fear the dark, and men of minds sensitive to hereditary impulses will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and unfathomable worlds, teeming with strange life, that can throb in the abysses that lie beyond the stars.

Different fears experienced in adulthood and childhood.

48. What is not known does not concern us, while an imaginary but insubstantial danger does not harm us.

It is not so much the unknown, but what we imagine about it, that distresses us.

49. Life is a horrible thing.

He was definitely not a fan of life.

50. Nobody dances sober unless they are completely insane.

A reference to the fact that crazy things are committed while outside of us.

51. Cosmic terror appears as an ingredient of the oldest folklore of all races and is crystallized in the most sacred ballads, chronicles and writings.

The essence of cosmic terror.

52. Can the demons that wait outside imitate the voices of my parents, my brother... my sister so wickedly?

Grim confessions of the writer about what tormented him.

53. Did fate preserve my reason only to irresistibly drag me to a more horrible and unthinkable end than anyone ever dreamed of?

Reflections on the end.

54. I never ask a man what his business is, because he never interests me. What I ask are his thoughts and dreams.

The things Lovecraft valued most.

55. Knowing the truths behind the reality is a much greater burden.

There are truths that it is better not to know.

56. I have always been a seeker, a dreamer and a ponderer in searching and dreaming.

Lovecrafct described himself as a dreamer.

57. It is a pity that most of humanity has such limited mental vision when it comes to weighing calmly and intelligently those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a few psychically sensitive people, that occur beyond experience common.

Not all people are interested in supernatural things.

58. Horrors, I think, should be original - the use of common myths and legends is a debilitating influence.

Your opinion on what horrors must be like.

59. Adulthood is hell.

There are those who see adulthood as a punishment.

60. In my opinion, there is nothing more merciful in the world than the inability of the human brain to correlate all its contents.

Must we remain naive about some things?

61. The atmosphere is always the most important element, since the final criterion of authenticity of a text does not reside in its argument, but in the creation of a certain mood.

Talking about the importance he gives to the environment in his stories.

62. I felt on the edge of the world; looking over the edge into the incomprehensible chaos of eternal night.

Have you ever felt like you've reached the limit?

63. I like coffee excessively.

A curiosity of the writer.

64. The ocean is older than the mountains and is loaded with the memories and dreams of time.

The sea contains great mysteries waiting to be discovered.

65. I couldn't live a week without my private library. In fact, I would turn over all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor rather than part with the 1500 books I own.

Talking about how much you appreciate his books.

66. He died because he knew or wanted to know too much. It is possible that a similar end awaits me, as I have also learned a lot ...

We cannot know everything.

67. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the middle of endless black seas, but it was not conceived that we should go very far.

We will always be ignorant, but it is our decision how much we will be.

68. Man is an essentially superstitious and fearful animal. Remove the Christian gods and saints from the pack and, without fail, they will come to worship... to something else.

Reference on the need to have a God to worship.

69. If I'm crazy, it's mercy! May the gods have mercy on man who in his cruelty can remain sane to the horrible end!

There are those who appreciate madness as a great ability to develop creativity.

70. The greatest human achievements have never been for profit.

A phrase to ponder.

71. Not many people know how many wonders are opened to them in the stories of youth, since when we are children we hear and dream, we harbor half-curdled ideas, and when we try to remember when we become men, we are hampered and rendered prosaic by the poison of lifetime.

There is always a touch of nostalgia and magic in the stories of youth.

72. But are not the dreams of poets and the tales of travelers notoriously false?

There is always an element of fallacy in the literature.

73. We had no record of the passage of time, because time had become for us a mere illusion.

Time passes according to how you want it to.

74. It is now clear to me that whatever real literary merit I possess is confined to dream tales, of strange shadows.

We adore the stories that are furthest from reality.

75. Where does madness end, where reality begins? Is it possible that even my last fear is something illusory?

There are crazy things that are part of reality.