In the enigmatic realm of language, where words wield the power to illuminate minds and stir souls, there lies a subset of expressions that delve into the depths of darkness. These profoundly dark quotes resonate with our innermost fears, struggles, and existential musings. They confront uncomfortable truths and cast light on the shadowy corners of the human experience, often offering a cathartic reflection on life's myriad challenges. In this curated anthology, we explore 69 such quotes, each a testament to the evocative power of words that, rather than offering comfort, provoke thought and inspire introspection. Join us as we navigate through these intense reflections, where darkness is not just an absence of light, but a profound space for understanding and growth.
1. “Our dreams are luminous, a cast fire upon the world.Morning arrives and that's it.Sunlight darkens the earth.” - Charles Wright
2. “That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.” - Ray Bradbury
3. “Yes, after all, this by now was his customary loneliness: there was little else he desired for the present than the hospitality of the dark.” - Walter de la Mare
4. “Hope is the privilege of the weak.” - Gasmaskman
5. “It is important to correct bad behavior one toe at a time.” - Gasmaskman
6. “Falling into ruin was a bit like falling in love: Both descents stripped you bare and left you as you were at your core. And both endings are equally painful.” - J.R. Ward
7. “On the stage Tristen bent over the piano, his fingers swift and sure, his blond hair gleaming under the spotlight. I glanced around at the audience, watching their faces, gratified that they were as captivated as I was by the dark, thunderous song that Tristen conjured.” - Beth Fantaskey
8. “My friend wants to get moving and so do I,' Eddie said. 'We've got miles to go yet.'I know that. It's on your face, son. Like a scar.'Eddie was fascinated by the idea of duty and ka as something that left a mark, something that might look like decoration to one eye and disfigurement to another. Outside, thunder cracked and lightning flashed.” - Stephen King
9. “She stood slim and proud as some medieval witch princess against dawn.” - L.J. Smith
10. “Holy men tell us life is a mystery.They embrace that concept happily.But some mysteries bite and barkand come to get you in the dark.” - Dean Koontz
11. “When its dark enough you can see the stars.” - Charles Austin Beard
12. “Take the dead from the dead, the old proverb said; only a corpse may speak true prophecy.” - Stephen King
13. “In Light there is Dark, and in Dark there is Light.” - Kami Garcia
14. “People do terrible things to each other, but it's worse in the places where everybody is kept in the dark.” - Tom Stoppard
15. “Follow your heart. Just don't get lost.” - Ilsa J. Bick
16. “I wasn’t going to argue with you. Why ever would you think that? I never argue."Lucian smiled at her. She was so small, it amazed him she was such a strong person. "Of course you do not argue. What was I thinking? Go to sleep, honey, and allow my poor body to rest.""I’m already asleep. You’re the one gabbing.” - Christine Feehan
17. “Technically, on the spectrum of very bad things, they did nothing truly wicked. But of course, that spectrum has no measure for the greatest of all carnal sins, the kind that occurs before skin touches skin, before wondering turns to yearning, yearning to having, having to holding for dear life, when two people cling to each other so desperately that even when they lie, inches apart, neither is fully satisfied until the light between them turns to darkness.” - Galt Niederhoffer
18. “You can make it dark, but I can't make it light.” - Jodi Picoult
19. “I see your bleeding dark side. I feel your angry heart. Reveals forbidden places. More monster yet alive...” - Static-X
20. “It touched me to be trusted with something terrible.” - Elizabeth Kostova
21. “What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too.And even if wars didn't keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death.” - Kurt Vonnegut
22. “This, the language of deception, we both understand. We were born to it, along with the curses.” - Holly Black
23. “Keep me rather in this cage, and feed me sparingly, if you dare. Anything that brings me closer to illness and the edge of death makes me more faithful. It is only when you make me suffer that I feel safe and secure. You should never have agreed to be a god for me if you were afraid to assume the duties of a god, and we know that they are not as tender as all that. You have already seen me cry. Now you must learn to relish my tears.” - Pauline Réage
24. “The more fucked up you are, the more I like you. As long as you've managed to hold onto your identity through all the shit, then it won't matter how twisted you are. I will love you more for it.” - Ashly Lorenzana
25. “There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots s there are in the bright ones.” - Jodi Picoult
26. “I find no peace, and all my war is done,I fear and hope; I burn and freeze like ice;I fly above the wind yet can I not arise;And naught I have and all the world I seize on.That looseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison,And holdeth me not, yet can I scape nowise;Nor letteth me live nor die at my devise,And yet of death it giveth none occasion.Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain;I desire to perish, and yet I ask health;I love another, and thus I hate myself;I feed me in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain.Likewise displeaseth me both death and lifeAnd my delight is causer of this strife.” - Sir Thomas Wyatt
27. “Through the darkest hours of the nightand through the dreamers realm I seek,Far beyond the starry skyand beyond galaxies I am free.Through the grimmest memoriesand past a seasons air I cannot breathe,Far beyond this mortal worldin an afterlife we shall meet.” - Lee Argus
28. “It looked as if a night of dark intent was coming, and not only a night, an age. Someone had better be prepared for rage...” - Robert Frost
29. “From the vast, invisible ocean of moonlight overhead fell, here and here, a slender, broken stream that seemed to plash against the intercepting branches and trickle to earth, forming small white pools among the clumps of laurel. But these leaks were few and served only to accentuate the blackness of his environment, which his imagination found it easy to people with all manner of unfamiliar shapes, menacing, uncanny, or merely grotesque.He to whom the portentous conspiracy of night and solitude and silence in the heart of a great forest is not an unknown experience needs not to be told what another world it all is - how even the most commonplace and familiar objects take on another character. The trees group themselves differently; they draw closer together, as if in fear. The very silence has another quality than the silence of the day. And it is full of half-heard whispers, whispers that startle - ghosts of sounds long dead. There are living sounds, too, such as are never heard under other conditions: notes of strange night birds, the cries of small animals in sudden encounters with stealthy foes, or in their dreams, a rustling in the dead leaves - it may be the leap of a wood rat, it may be the footstep of a panther. What caused the breaking of that twig? What the low, alarmed twittering in that bushful of birds? There are sounds without a name, forms without substance, translations in space of objects which have not been seen to move, movements wherein nothing is observed to change its place. Ah, children of the sunlight and the gaslight, how little you know of the world in which you live! ("A Tough Tussle")” - Ambrose Bierce
30. “His angelic wings blackened when the dark fury assailed his mind. Summoning new strength from the unholy power that ravaged his soul, grieved to drastic levels of desperation by the tainting of the holy light within him, he combated ally and enemy alike, bent on destroying both sides in order to ensure the quelling of the dark energies there and then. For days and nights, the lone warrior bathed himself in the blood of angels and demons. And when it was over, he stood alone on contaminated land, with a contaminated soul. He was banned forever from Heaven and not even Hell had space for a creature which seemed to cherish Oblivion over Pandemonium. The dark angel, not so far removed from his former self as his superiors seemed to believe, died on the edge of the cliffs, of utter loneliness and despair.” - T. A. Miles
31. “Don't think that your first love has to be your only love.” - Yukiru Sugisaki
32. “All about us were people. Perhaps a hundred. Men. Experience had taught me that humans were cruelest when segregated by sex, and the cold feeling in the pit of my stomach became led. What had I let myself in for?” - C.S. Friedman
33. “You will die like a dog for no good reason.” - Ernest Hemingway
34. “She wasn't to know there was no room for Soren - or any other boy - in my heart. There was only one boy taking up that place.Luca.” - Lee Monroe
35. “Don't let me get into your head. I will twist it and alter it until even you won't recognize yourself. You cannot begin to comprehend the power I possess. I can harm you in any way impossible.” - Troy Bisson
36. “I really wasn't sure if I wanted this guy knowing where I lived. After all, he was wielding a baseball bat, and I had just seen him strike several people with that bat.” - Holly Hood
37. “Perfect, complete, needing nothing, simply all there was, was the dark.” - Laurell K. Hamilton
38. “There were secrets there, the secrets of the ether all mankind is born from; of the blackness that holds our oldest memories captive.” - Bryan Hall
39. “Being on the side of the Light is much tougher than being on the side of the Dark...” - Sergei Lukyanenko
40. “Terri had already gotten her panties into a bunch just from one little phone call, so he knew coming at her too much too fast would be more trouble than it was worth. He couldn’t exactly beat her into submission, not right away anyway. Although he did enjoy seeing her get all riled up. Nothing tugged at a man’s heartstrings like a pair of mascara smeared eyes. Randy from Spring Cleaning-- Coming Summer 2012” - Brandi Salazar
41. “He had to get inside. It was essential that he know everything, the routes she took, her schedule, and the lay of the land. The silver moon glowed overhead, mocking him. Somewhere in the trees an owl hooted its laughter at his failure. Randy--from Spring Cleaning--Coming Summer 2012” - Brandi Salazar
42. “But you still need the two: the dark and the light. You can't see one without the other.” - Julia Green
43. “Your diet must be about fifty-fifty, carrots and locoweed," Annie said softly.He froze."I can't figure out what in the name of God's labia majora you think you're doing...but I'm impressed by how well you're doing it in the dark. You must have eyes like a cat.” - Spider Robinson
44. “I believe that in a way, sadness is happiness for there can be no wrong without right, no light without dark, no success without failure, no relief without pain, no love without hatred and no Snow White without the evil queen.” - Lisa Cander
45. “Did you follow me here?""Something like that."I let out a frustrated groan. "Can't anyone just talk to me straight? Why is everyone avoiding my damn questions tonight?"Bishop's brows went up. "Okay, fine. Yes, I followed you here. Better?""Yes. Stalkery, but better.""I'm not stalking you.""Spoken like a true stalker” - Michelle Rowen
46. “I walked in the dark forest at night...I couldn't see much further in the dark ,I heard the sound of the past, ..Memories Went back clear to me and Fear started hunting me, ..No Way To Escape , No Way To Stand Still...” - Hamza wolf
47. “He was abominable...and the most alluring, tortured soul I'd ever met.” - Becca Fitzpatrick
48. “You don't find light by avoiding the darkness.” - S. Kelley Harrell
49. “We walked back the way we came, and even though it was dark there were no lights burning inside the houses. They were like people without hearts; raspberry tarts without the jam.” - Glenda Millard
50. “There was nothing the matter out there. It was in here, with me. I decided I'd better go to work, maybe that would exorcise me. I fled from the room almost as though it were haunted. It was too late to stop off at a breakfast counter now. I didn't want any, anyway. My stomach kept giving little quivers. In the end I didn't go to work, either. I couldn't, I wouldn't have been any good. I telephoned in that I was too ill to come, and it was no idle excuse, even though I was upright on my two legs.I roamed around the rest of the day in the sunshine. Wherever the sunshine was the brightest, I sought and stayed in that place, and when it moved on I moved with it. I couldn't get it bright enough or strong enough. I avoided the shade, I edged away from it, even the slight shade of an awning or of a tree.And yet the sunshine didn't warm me. Where others mopped their brows and moved out of it, I stayed - and remained cold inside. And the shade was winning the battle as the hours lengthened. It outlasted the sun. The sun weakened and died; the shade deepened and spread. Night was coming on, the time of dreams, the enemy. ("Nightmare")” - Cornell Woolrich
51. “Had pretended to be Abbadon of the Dark, when always he had been working for the Light.” - Melissa de la Cruz
52. “He was the monster that no one thought to look for in the light of day. It was a common mistake. People often believed they were safer in the light, thinking monsters only came out at night. But safety - like light - is a facade. Underneath, the whole world is drenched in darkness.” - CJ Roberts
53. “What about the future?""We'll talk about the future when it gets here.” - Arturo Pérez-Reverte
54. “No fear is unbearable, she concluded, unless you've got time on your hands and a healthy imagination.” - Arturo Pérez-Reverte
55. “There are things so horrible that even the dark is afraid of them. Most people don't know this and this is just as well because the world could not really operate if everyone stayed in bed with the blankets over their head, which is what would happen if people knew what horrors lay a shadow's width away.” - Terry Pratchett
56. “Nothing nice happens to murdered women.” - Richard Kadrey
57. “There’s this anomaly that happens sometimes with twins. It occurs in the womb when the fetuses are growing too closely to each other. The stronger twin develops normally, while the weaker twin crumples and is encased by the body of the stronger twin, where it becomes a parasite. The result is a single child, plagued by a twin-shaped fossil inside. Like a tumor.In death Rose became Linden’s parasitic twin. They were two separate organisms once, growing steadily beside each other. Two pulses. Two brains. But she has crumpled and died, and still he carries her inside himself. She goes where he goes, feeling nothing, seeing nothing, a shadow behind his ribs.” - Lauren DeStefano
58. “There is a silence so great that I can hear the ice crystals cracking and falling from eyelashes of girls who will never blink again.” - Lauren DeStefano
59. “She’s a commodity in a sea of broken girls.” - Lauren DeStefano
60. “We were his disposable things. Brought to him like cattle. Stripped of what made us sisters or daughters or children. There was nothing that he could take from us—our genes, our bones, our wombs—that would ever satisfy him. There was no other way that we would be free.” - Lauren DeStefano
61. “Suddenly exhausted, she closes her eyes and slips into nightmares again. Graveyards rising out of the ocean. Her friends’ corpses in the light of their burning school. Skeletons ripping open men's chests and crawling inside. She endures it patiently, waiting for the horror film to end and the theater to go dark, those precious few hours of blackout that are her only respite.” - Isaac Marion
62. “Shadows were too black, and when a breeze stirred the trees, the shadows changed in a disquieting way.” - Stephen King
63. “What about nightmares? Have you experienced sexual dreams of a dark nature?” - S.M. Reine
64. “Most people say about graveyards: "Oh, it's just a bunch of dead people. It's creepy." But for me, there's an energy to it that it not creepy, or dark. It has a positive sense to it.” - Tim Burton
65. “His breathing was heavy, and full of life. He shivered still, his hand finding Katty unsteady and unprepared of what was going to come next. “I hurt you!” Nico said, his voice raised with worry. “No, not at all, honey, my sweetest Master, but you have me, all of me, the wholeness of me and my darkness.” “You play with the devil dear.” Nico sombered. “No.” Katty defiantly said. “You took my blood and it made me your slave, yet I love every minute of it.”“Tell me you love me Katty.” He said, nearing her closer than close, mending the space between them with the threads of courage. “Tell me you have no fear, nor no weakness against me. Or no shame in loving me.”“I fear you not, my love.” Katty sincerely committed. “I fear only that you will be taken away by the hands of the vampire hunter, and only then, will I fall.” - Keira D. Skye
66. “A shadow is never created in darkness. It is born of light. We can be blind to it and blinded by it. Our shadow asks us to look at what we don’t want to see” - Terry Tempest Williams
67. “Time seemed to drag with dreamlike slowness, like a knife through cold honey, and the room took on a surreal golden sheen as if I was looking through that same jar of honey. Maybe at that moment, the sun shone just right though the grimy windows, but the woman, the shelves, the jars, everything in the room appeared in tones of gold and sepia, except for the painting behind the counter. From behind the shopkeeper's head, a fluorescent Mary and Jesus glared at me, their cartoon-like faces reproaching me for being there.” - Sara Stark
68. “Master of the Dark Shadow. For I also, Niniel, had my darkness, in which dear things were lost; but now I have overcome it, I deem.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
69. “There's not one good thought in that place. There's nothing but waste and want. I can feel his selfish cravings and an abyss of secrets I hope to never know.” - Steve V. Cypert
