Halloween Quotes

‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood.
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. Spoken by Hamlet.

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. Spoken by the Witches.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog.
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. Spoken by the Witches.

In Halloween

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.

– Unknown

The moon has awoken with the sleep of the sun
Light has been broken and the spell has begun.

– Tairrie B

Carpe Noctem, from album Vintage Curses.

It’s said that All Hallow’s Eve is one of the nights when the veil between the worlds is thin – and whether you believe in such things or not, those roaming spirits probably believe in you, or at least acknowledge your existence, considering that it used to be their own. Even the air feels different on Halloween, autumn-crisp and bright.

– Erin Morgenstern

I heard one cry in the night, and I heard one laugh afterwards. If I cannot forget that, I shall not be able to sleep again.

– M. R. James

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

But I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.

– Evan Peters

The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.

– Stephen King

Night Shift

In our town, Halloween was terrifying and thrilling, and there was a whiff of homicide. We’d travel by foot in the dark for miles, collecting candy, watching out for adults who seemed too eager to give us treats.

– Rosecrans Baldwin

There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.

– Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim, Chapter 24.

Listen to them – the children of the night. What music they make.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula. Count Dracula to Jonathan Harker, referring to the howling of the wolves.

It was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these men, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night.

– Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles

In Halloween

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

– Scottish Saying

When witches go riding,
And black cats are seen,
The moon laughs and whispers,
‘Tis near Halloween.

– Unknown

I’ll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.

– Unknown

What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did he eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from some distant window! How often was he appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, beset his very path! How often did he shrink with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath his feet; and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him! and how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings!

– Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In Halloween

Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to.

– Richard Harris Barham

On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me.

– Rodney Dangerfield

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it makes him landlord to a ghost.

– Lloyd Douglas

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

– Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet

Shadows of a thousand years
Rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees
‘Tonight is Halloween!’

– Dexter Kozen

Bring forth the raisins and the nuts-
Tonight All-Hallows’ Spectre struts
Along the moonlit way.

– John Kendrick Bangs

Halloween

‘Tis the night – the night
Of the grave’s delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they – it is they.

– Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Halloween, a Romaunt.

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

– Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven

In Halloween

The witches fly
Across the sky,
The owls go, ‘Who? Who? Who?’
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl,
‘Scary Halloween to you!’

– Nina Willis Walter

A thousand fearful images and dire suggestions glance along the mind when it is moody and discontented with itself. Command them to stand and show themselves, and you presently assert the power of reason over imagination.

– Walter Scott

For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true.

– Titus Lucretius Carus

De Rerum Natura

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

– Francis Bacon

Essays, Of Death.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death.

– Bertrand Russell

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