In the world of literature and popular culture, monsters have always captured our imagination with their mysterious allure and symbolic depth. These creatures of myth and legend serve not only as sources of fear but also as mirrors reflecting the complexities of human nature. Our curated collection of 87 inspiring quotes about monsters invites you to explore these intriguing narratives and uncover the wisdom hidden within. Whether it's the monstrous challenges we face in our lives or the inner demons we strive to conquer, these quotes offer unique perspectives and thought-provoking insights. Join us as we delve into the fascinating realm of monsters and discover the inspiration they can offer.
1. “Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.” - Alice Sebold
2. “What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” - Werner Herzog
3. “Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.” - Stephen King
4. “The real world is where the monsters are.” - Rick Riordan
5. “Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters.” - Rick Riordan
6. “If I can't be beautiful, I want to be invisible.” - Chuck Palahniuk
7. “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” - Primo Levi
8. “All monsters have their fits of depression.” - Rachilde
9. “You speak of the hand of Fatma, my friends, but you do not know the terrible power of this hand, the hand of monsters that menace you and seduce you with their subterranean access, their metallic splintering, their inhuman grotesqueness of idols.” - Georges Limbour
10. “It's poor judgment', said Grandpa 'to call anything by a name. We don't know what a hobgoblin or a vampire or a troll is. Could be lots of things. You can't heave them into categories with labels and say they'll act one way or another. That'd be silly. They're people. People who do things. Yes, that's the way to put it. People who *do* things.” - Ray Bradbury
11. “The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous” - John le Carré
12. “I would like you to teach [the orcs] civilised behaviour," said Ladyship coldly.He appeared to consider this. "Yes of course, I think that would be quite possible," he said. "And who would you send to teach the humans?” - Terry Pratchett
13. “The little poets sing of little things:Hope, cheer, and faith, small queens and puppet kings;Lovers who kissed and then were made as one,And modest flowers waving in the sun.The mighty poets write in blood and tearsAnd agony that, flame-like, bites and sears.They reach their mad blind hands into the night,To plumb abysses dead to human sight;To drag from gulfs where lunacy lies curled,Mad, monstrous nightmare shapes to blast the world. MUSINGS [click on the thumbnail by Jack "King" Kirby]” - Robert E. Howard
14. “TO WHOM LIFE IS AN EXPERIENCE TO BE CARRIED AS FAR AS POSSIBLE... I have not meant to express my thought but to help you clarify what you yourself think... You are not any more different from me than your right leg is from your left, but what joins us is THE SLEEP OF REASON—WHICH PRODUCES MONSTERS.—Theory of Religion” - Georges Bataille
15. “You would hardly think, at first, that horrid monsters lie up there waiting to be discovered by any moderately penetrating mind--monsters to which those of the oceans bear no sort of comparison."What monsters may they be?"Impersonal monsters, namely, Immensities. Until a person has thought out the stars and their inter-spaces, he has hardly learnt that there are things much more terrible than monsters of shape, namely, monsters of magnitude without known shape. Such monsters are the voids and waste places of the sky... In these our sight plunges quite beyond any twinkler we have yet visited. Those deep wells for the human mind to let itself down into, leave alone the human body! and think of the side caverns and secondary abysses to right and left as you pass on!...There is a size at which dignity begins," he exclaimed; "further on there is a size at which grandeur begins; further on there is a size at which solemnity begins; further on, a size at which awfulness begins; further on, a size at which ghastliness begins. That size faintly approaches the size of the stellar universe. So am I not right in saying that those minds who exert their imaginative powers to bury themselves in the depths of that universe merely strain their faculties to gain a new horror?” - Thomas Hardy
16. “As a breath on glass, -As witch-fires that burn,The gods and monsters pass,Are dust, and return.(“The Face of the Skies”)” - George Sterling
17. “I would rather live than die. I would rather die than survive as a monster.” - Robert Fanney
18. “Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'Here are our monsters,' without immediately turning the monsters into pets.” - Jacques Derrida
19. “Deal with all this, live with myself, you mean? I honestly don't know. I stand often enough at the abyss of my soul, asking that same question, looking down into the dark crevices where the black monsters dwell on the bottom. They gaze up at me, and I look them in the eyes. “This also you are,” they say, and I almost fall into the void.”“And then?”Anaxantis shrugged.“And then? I turn around and go do what needs to be done. What else is there?” - Andrew Ashling
20. “One man carries salvation and damnation from the desert.” - Matthew Sawyer
21. “But what if the monsters come?""Fancy." Kit looked away from the drama to stare at her sister, surprised. "We are the monsters.” - Dia Reeves
22. “CONTROL MYSELF?!! I'm a MONSTER! Monsters don't control themselves! That's the whole IDEA!” - Jeff Smith
23. “ Monsters remain human beings. In fact, to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder — just as animals are not deemed morally responsible for killing. Insisting on the humanity of terrorists is, in fact, critical to maintaining their profound responsibility for the evil they commit.And, if they are human, then they must necessarily not be treated in an inhuman fashion. You cannot lower the moral baseline of a terrorist to the subhuman without betraying a fundamental value.” - Andrew Sullivan
24. “Do not be so ridiculous, I can more easily find you someone else.” Gripping the bars of his prison so strongly that the bones of his knuckles showed prominently through his pale skin, the monster growled again, “I will have no other.” Nearing the end of his patience, Klaus demanded, “Why? Why are you being so impossible?” Turning to the diminutive creature beneath the blanket, he smiled nastily, his light red eyes gleaming, “Because he wants her.” - Gwenn Wright
25. “Will looked horrified. "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?” - Cassandra Clare
26. “As I said earlier it is most surprising that the kingdom of then world should have come under the sway of a species of monkey, and there is reason to suppose that there were other claimants to the throne. ("The Shadmock")” - R. Chetwynd-Hayes
27. “The problem with people who say monsters don't really exist is that they're almost never saying it to the monsters." —Alice Healy” - Seanan McGuire
28. “Yes, my dear child, monsters are real. I happen to have one hanging in my basement.” - Rick Yancey
29. “As Mr. R. U. Sayee has well said: 'It should be clear a priori that fairy lore must have developed as a result of modifications and accretions received in different countries and at many periods, though we must not overlook the part played by tradition in providing a mould that to some extent determines the nature of later additions.' It must also be self-evident that a great deal of confusion has been caused by the assumption that some spirit-types were fairies which in a more definite sense are certainly not of elfin provenance. In some epochs, indeed, Faerie appears to have been regarded as a species of limbo to which all 'pagan' spirits - to say nothing of defeated gods, monsters, and demons - could be banished, along with the personnel of Olympus and the rout of witchcraft. Such types, however, are usually fairly easy of detection.” - Lewis Spence
30. “… we have bad dreamsbecause our brain is trying to protect us… If we can figure out a way to beat the imaginary monsters … Then the real monsters don’t seem so scary… That’s why we like reading scary stories.” - Dan Poblocki
31. “Everyone carries around his own monsters.---Richard Pryor” - Jonathan Maberry
32. “It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.” - Maggie Stiefvater
33. “...it is easy not to believe in monsters, considerably more difficult to escape their dread and loathsome clutches.” - Stanisław Lem
34. “We were all monsters and bastards, and we were all beautiful.” - Rachel Hartman
35. “Well, the first thing is that I love monsters, I identify with monsters.” - Guillermo Del Toro
36. “We are very fond of books. You can learn nearly everything from them that rabbits can't teach you.” - Alan Snow
37. “Then stop trying to throw logic at nightmares. Sometimes the monsters are real, Anita. Sometimes they're real and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster. ~Bibiana to Anita” - Laurell K. Hamilton
38. “A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.” - Kelly Link
39. “Unhappiness slowly creeps up on you, like a shape-shifting monster waiting in the darkness of your hallway, his bulging eyes watching your every move. The breath on his slimy tongue makes the hairs on your neck stand up.” - Kate Rockland
40. “*For eleven years, I've been worked over and abused in ways you can't imagine by things you don't want to know about. I've killed every kind of vile, black-souled, dead-eyed nightmare that ever made you piss your pjs and cry for mommy in the middle of the night. I kill monsters and, if I wanted, I could say a word and burn you to powder from the inside out. I can tear any human you ever met to rages with my bare hands. Give me one good reason why I could possibly need you?*She looks straight at me, not blinking. No fear in her eyes.*Because you might be the Tasmanian Devil and the Angel of Death all rolled into one, but you don't even know how to get a phone.*I hate to admit it, but she has a point.” - Richard Kadrey
41. “You worry that we're becoming monsters. Merlin, we already were monsters. You didn't make us any worse.” - Alastair Reynolds
42. “The monsters are gone.""Really?" Doubtful."I killed the monsters. That's what fathers do.” - F K Wallace
43. “Oh," the girl said, shaking her head. "Don't be so simple. People adore monsters. They fill their songs and stories with them. They define themselves in relation to them. You know what a monster is, young shade? Power. Power and choice. Monsters make choices. Monsters shape the world. Monsters force us to become stronger, smarter, better. They sift the weak from the strong and provide a forge for the steeling of souls. Even as we curse monsters, we admire them. Seek to become them, in some ways." Her eyes became distant. "There are far, far worse things to be than a monster.” - Jim Butcher
44. “There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.” - George R. R. Martin
45. “Marco Polo had seen the inhabitants of Zipangu place rose-colored pearls in the mouths of the dead. A sea-monster had been enamoured of the pearl that the diver brought to King Perozes, and had slain the thief, and mourned for seven moons over its loss.” - Oscar Wilde
46. “Be careful in the company of monsters that you don't become one.” - Cindy Gerard
47. “She is so lovely she could kill you without you even noticing it. A monster girl who knows when to kiss and when to kill.” - Cameron Jace
48. “That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frightenpeople, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.” - Jeanette Walls
49. “I may not be sure if monsters exist, but I’d rather live my life in doubt than be persuaded by a real experience of one.” - Gregory Maguire
50. “I ignored him, concentrating on Lilith. "According to the stories, after you were expelled from Eden you went down into Hell, where you coupled with demons and gave birth to all the monsters that have plagued the world.""I was young," said Lilith. "You know how it is. We all do things we later regret, when we're being rebellious teenagers.” - Simon R. Green
51. “Beware the dark pool at the bottom of our hearts. In its icy, black depths dwell strange and twisted creatures it is best not to disturb.” - Sue Grafton
52. “You're wondering if you have to prey on humans, if you can survive by drinking the blood of animals or other creatures. You're hoping you won't have to kill people to live. Am I right?” - Julie Kagawa
53. “The torment of love can transform people into wretched monsters” - Mathias Malzieu
54. “Are you the only human in the world then? And all of the rest of us monsters?” - Catherynne M. Valente
55. “It was one thing to deal with monsters that were human in appearance. Another thing entirely to deal with humans who were monsters.” - Samantha Young
56. “The wounded were crying, and the rest were dying. Jack stood alone in a hallway of mangled men, who had been trained for this” - Seth Tucker
57. “It doesn't make you a monster to want, she said, her voice very gentle. It's what you do with it that matters.” - Jim Butcher
58. “I’m a monster,” said the shadow of the Marquess suddenly. “Everyone says so.” The Minotaur glanced up at her. “So are we all, dear,” said the Minotaur kindly. “The thing to decide is what kind of monster to be. The kind who builds towns or the kind who breaks them.” - Catherynne M. Valente
59. “She was a monster, but she was my monster.” - Jeanette Winterson
60. “Who are the real monsters?” - Beth Revis
61. “You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, “Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist?" And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.” - Junot Diaz
62. “I warned myself against the danger of compassion in this case. How easy it would be to imagine the traumas of childhood that might have deformed her into the moral monster she had become, and then to convince myself that those traumas could be balanced - and their effects reversed - by sufficient acts of kindness.” - Dean Koontz
63. “Who knew death could lead to an eating disorder?” - Corey Redekop
64. “Monsters don’t exist. It’s men you should be afraid of, not monsters.” - Niccolò Ammaniti
65. “I'm an invisible monster. I'm incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse.” - Chuck Palahniuk
66. “She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and bit her bottom lip. I found it to be such an erotic gesture that it aroused me. My eyes began making love to her in the dark. Unseen hands passed over her curves, quietly descending...trembling at her great beauty. I didn't even know her, but I wanted her. My gaze danced over her every curve, from her nose and lips, to her breasts and hips, surreptitiously. She had no idea of my thoughts. Shadow sex.” - Rae Hachton
67. “I come from a long line of body snatchers, probably the top-notch body snatchers in America. No make that the world. Some people might think it's gross digging up bones or corpses, but who asked them? It's no big deal, but then I've been doing it since I got out of diapers.” - Minda Webber
68. “...cities are murky places - hatching grounds for monsters...” - John Geddes
69. “...we fear monsters because we fear the dark parts of ourselves...” - John Geddes
70. “...people demonize certain types of crime - it's a way of distancing ourselves from the monsters...” - John Geddes
71. “...no good writing flows from a polluted well - you can write about monsters, but you can't be one...” - John Geddes
72. “...all these epic battles and monsters lately - but love is a tiny world and I prefer a more personal style...” - John Geddes
73. “You have to stop crying, and you have to go kick some ass.” - Lady Gaga
74. “Living in a place like this, she must have learned how to see all the monsters that can hide a person.” - Lauren DeStefano
75. “And the bubbles of light again rose and fell, and in their disordered, irregular, turbulent maze, mingled with the wan moonlight. And now from these globules themselves as from the shell of an egg, monstrous things burst out; the air grew filled with them; larvae so bloodless and so hideous that I can in no way describe them except to remind the reader of the swarming life which the solar microscope brings before his eyes in a drop of water - things transparent, supple, agile, chasing each other, devouring each other - forms like nought ever beheld by the naked eye. As the shapes were without symmetry, so their movements were without order. In their very vagrancies there was no sport; they came round me and round, thicker and faster and swifter, swarming over my head, crawling over my right arm, which was outstretched in involuntary command against all evil beings. ("The House And The Brain")” - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
76. “Monsters were wild. Monsters were strong. Monsters were fierce and free.If I was monstrous...perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing.” - Sarah Diemer
77. “Nothing makes us love something more than the loss of it.” - Rick Yancey
78. “If the sleep of reason produces monsters, what does the sleep of unreason produce?” - Guillermo Cabrera Infante
79. “We may see a Creature with forty-nine headsWho lives in the desolate snow,And whenever he catches a cold (which he dreads)He has forty-nine noses to blow.'We may see the venomous Pink-Spotted ScrunchWho can chew up a man with one bite.It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunchAnd eighteen for its supper at night.'We may see a Dragon, and nobody knowsThat we won't see a Unicorn there.We may see a terrible Monster with toesGrowing out of the tufts of his hair.'We may see the sweet little Biddy-Bright HenSo playful, so kind and well-bred;And such beautiful eggs! You just boil them and thenThey explode and they blow off your head.'A Gnu and a Gnocerous surely you'll seeAnd that gnormous and gnorrible GnatWhose sting when it stings you goes in at the kneeAnd comes out through the top of your hat.'We may even get lost and be frozen by frost.We may die in an earthquake or tremor.Or nastier still, we may even be tossedOn the horns of a furious Dilemma.'But who cares! Let us go from this horrible hill!Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge!Let's go rolling and bowling and spinning untilWe're away from old Spiker and Sponge!” - Roald Dahl
80. “It’s really kind of… well, beautiful, in a way. Even the monsters, once you get to know ‘em. We’re all beautiful.” - Peter Watts
81. “Jack sprung to his feet out of reach. "I'd prefer to finish this intact. " "My apologies,” Cabal said, grinning viciously. "l keep forgetting, you're only human." His smile softened to full amusement as Jack raised his sword in challenge."Human or not," Jack said as he slowly approached him. "I carry the advantage of unworldly knowledge. "" Is that what you're doing?" Cabal laughed; "Something unworldly?""I have a vast library of knowledge inside my head from my homeland.""What knowledge could your world offer that would be useful here?""How about a toilet?" Jack winked at Nicole.“Perhaps you should build one and leave us all in awe.” Cabal declared.“People could call them ‘Jacks’ for short.” Nicole added to the conversation.” - Alaina Stanford
82. “Sometimes, the only way to solve your problems in life, the only way to conquer your fears, is if you face them. If you face your problems, they just flee. But if you flee instead, run away from them, they only get bigger, and they can totally destroy you.” - Elizabeth Newton
83. “Monsters have the worst taste in women.” - Tera Lynn Childs
84. “Monsters excite us in this way or that.They make our pulse thrum and steal lives from the cat!They're frightening creatures, one peek and you'll see.Yet life without monsters, how dull it would be.Your tense, nervous laugh tells me you disagree?” - Richelle E. Goodrich
85. “The only monsters I have ever known were men.” - Jodi Picoult
86. “Believing in God and turning into Monsters.” - M.F. Moonzajer
87. “We were still children and residing in the mosque from morning to evening. We were about to turn into monsters.” - M.F. Moonzajer
