Our brains deliberately make us forget things, to prevent insanity

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

Non- Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension. (Dreams In The Witch-House)

But are not the dreams of poets and the tales of travellers notoriously false?

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

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.

Ultimate horror often paralyses memory in a merciful way.