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

Life has never interested me so much as the escape from life.

With hidden powers of unknown extent apparently at his disposal, Curwen was not a man who could safely be warned to leave town.

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

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists.

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.