Quotes by H. P. Lovecraft

“Indeed, there is much in pure humanitarian culture, as opposed to rigid scientific training, which encourages absorption in the affairs of mankind, and more or less indifference to the unfathomed a...”

“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....”

“But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean.”

“Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent.”

“Science, already oppressive with its shocking revelations, will perhaps be the ultimate exterminator of our human species - if separate species we be - for its reserve of unguessed horrors could ne...”

“For correct writing, the cultivation of patience and mental accuracy is essential. Throughout the young author's period of apprenticeship, he must keep reliable dictionaries and textbooks at his el...”

“All rationalism tends to minimalise the value and the importance of life and to decrease the sum total of human happiness.”

“If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial back...”

“Fear is our deepest and strongest emotion, and the one which best lends itself to the creation of nature-defying illusions.”

“Of our relation to all creation we can never know anything whatsoever. All is immensity and chaos. But, since all this knowledge of our limitations cannot possibly be of any value to us, it is bett...”

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

“Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.”

“I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me.”

“To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth.”

“Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long - then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every a...”

“Write out the story - rapidly, fluently, and not too critically - following the second or narrative-order synopsis. Change incidents and plot whenever the developing process seems to suggest such c...”

“Cats are the runes of beauty, invincibility, wonder, pride, freedom, coldness, self-sufficiency, and dainty individuality - the qualities of sensitive, enlightened, mentally developed, pagan, cynic...”

“What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the world's beauty, is everything!”

“Nothing is really typical of my efforts... I'm simply casting about for better ways to crystallise and capture certain strong impressions (involving the elements of time, the unknown, cause and eff...”

“Imagination is a very potent thing, and in the uneducated often usurps the place of genuine experience.”