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

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

The sea can bind us to her many moods, whispering to us by the subtle token of a shadow or a gleam upon the waves, and hinting in these ways of her mournfulness or rejoicing. Always she is remembering old things, and these memories, though we may not grasp them, are imparted to us, so that we share her gaiety or remorse.

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

Nyarlathotep . . . the crawling chaos . . . I am the last . . . I will tell the audient void. . . .

Life is a hideous thing.

I am a student of life, and don't want to miss any experience. There's poetry in this sort of thing, you know--or perhaps you don't know, but it's all the same.