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

I am, indeed, an absolute materialist so far as actual belief goes; with not a shred of credence in any form of supernaturalism—religion, spiritualism, transcendentalism, metempsychosis, or immortality.

Man is an essentially superstitious and fearful animal. Take away the herd's Christian gods and saints and they will without failing come to worship...something else.

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

Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability.

At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own, there come inspirations and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour. No one knows whether or not he is a writer unless he has tried writing at night.

That which we call substance and reality is shadow and illusion, and that which we call shadow and illusion is substance and reality.