The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!

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

I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.

From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

Sometimes one feels that it would be merciful to tear down these houses, for they must often dream.

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.