The man or nation of high culture may acknowledge to great lengths the restraints imposed by conventions and honour, but beyond a certain point, primitive will or desire cannot be curbed. – H. P. Lovecraft
Write out the story – rapidly, fluently, and not too critically – following the second or narrative-order synopsis. Change incidents and plot whenever the developing process seems to suggest such change, never being bound by any previous design. – H. P. Lovecraft
Cats are the runes of beauty, invincibility, wonder, pride, freedom, coldness, self-sufficiency, and dainty individuality – the qualities of sensitive, enlightened, mentally developed, pagan, cynical, poetic, philosophic, dispassionate, reserved, independent, Nietzschean, unbroken, civilised, master-class men. – H. P. Lovecraft
But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean. – H. P. Lovecraft
If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. – H. P. Lovecraft
I am essentially a recluse who will have very little to do with people wherever he may be. I think that most people only make me nervous – that only by accident, and in extremely small quantities, would I ever be likely to come across people who wouldn’t. – H. P. Lovecraft
One superlatively important effect of wide reading is the enlargement of vocabulary which always accompanies it. – H. P. Lovecraft
Heaven knows where I’ll end up – but it’s a safe bet that I’ll never be at the top of anything! Nor do I particularly care to be. – H. P. Lovecraft
The cat is such a perfect symbol of beauty and superiority that it seems scarcely possible for any true aesthete and civilised cynic to do other than worship it. – H. P. Lovecraft
I have no illusions concerning the precarious status of my tales and do not expect to become a serious competitor of my favorite weird authors. – H. P. Lovecraft
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. – H. P. Lovecraft
One can never produce anything as terrible and impressive as one can awesomely hint about. – H. P. Lovecraft
To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth. – H. P. Lovecraft
Fear is our deepest and strongest emotion, and the one which best lends itself to the creation of nature-defying illusions. – H. P. Lovecraft
It is only the forcible propagation of conventional Christianity that makes the agnostic so bitter toward the church. He knows that all the doctrines cannot possibly be true, but he would view them with toleration if he were asked merely to let them alone for the benefit of the masses whom they can help and succour. – H. P. Lovecraft
Personally, I would not care for immortality in the least. There is nothing better than oblivion, since in oblivion there is no wish unfulfilled. We had it before we were born yet did not complain. Shall we whine because we know it will return? It is Elysium enough for me, at any rate. – H. P. Lovecraft
The most merciful thing in the world… is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. – H. P. Lovecraft
Very few minds are strictly normal, and all religious fanatics are marked with abnormalities of various sorts. – H. P. Lovecraft
In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of rational evidence, I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist. – H. P. Lovecraft
No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe or Ambrose Bierce. – H. P. Lovecraft
We should perceive that man’s period of historical existence, a period so short that his physical constitution has not been altered in the slightest degree, is insufficient to allow of any considerable mental change. – H. P. Lovecraft
Atmosphere, not action, is the great desideratum of weird fiction. Indeed, all that a wonder story can ever be is a vivid picture of a certain type of human mood. – H. P. Lovecraft
One cannot be too careful in the selection of adjectives for descriptions. Words or compounds which describe precisely, and which convey exactly the right suggestions to the mind of the reader, are essential. – H. P. Lovecraft
Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent. – H. P. Lovecraft
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. – H. P. Lovecraft
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. – H. P. Lovecraft
If I could create an ideal world, it would be an England with the fire of the Elizabethans, the correct taste of the Georgians, and the refinement and pure ideals of the Victorians. – H. P. Lovecraft
There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of The Street. – H. P. Lovecraft