Ghost quotations:
These are some of our favorite quotations related to ghosts, hauntings, fear, the supernatural,
and the imagination.
From the 1963 movie, The Haunting, based on the Shirley Jackson novel:
- "Ghosts make the papers along with celebrities every day of the week." - Dr. John Markway
- "When people believed the earth was flat, the idea of a round world
scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the
same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll
continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear." - Dr. John Markway
- "It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad." - Dr. John Markway
Other quotations related to ghost & hauntings
"Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."
- Arthur C. Clarke, in 2001: A Space Odyssey
"It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation
of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance
of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it;
but all belief is for it." - Samuel Johnson, in his autobiography
"There are an infinite number of universes existing side by side and through
which our consciousnesses constantly pass. In these universes, all possibilities
exist. You are alive in some, long dead in others, and never existed in still others.
Many of our "ghosts" could indeed be visions of people going about their business in a
parallel universe or another time -- or both." - Paul F. Eno, in Faces at the Window
"Courage is fear that has said its prayers." - Dorothy Bernard, actress
"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
"Fear is the main source of superstition..." - Bertrand Russell
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." - Mark Twain
"Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter." - Oliver Goldsmith
"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!" - Scottish prayer
"Where there is no imagination there is no Horror." - Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.
"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." - George Carlin
"'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world."
- William Shakespeare, in Hamlet
"I have heard, but not believed, the spirits o’the dead
May walk again." - William Shakespeare, in The Winter's Tale
"Not that the Red Indian will ever possess the broad lands of America. At least I presume not.
But his ghost will." - D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)
"The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear—
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year." - Emily Dickinson
"I’m here because you believe I’m here. Keep on believing and I’ll always be real to you." - Capt. Gregg
in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, by Philip Dunne and Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"David Kessler: Are you really dead, Jack?
Jack Goodman: What do you think?" - from An American Werewolf in Paris, by John Landis
"Well, if I were going to haunt anybody, this would certainly be the house I’d do it in." - Lance Schroeder in
The House on Haunted Hill (1958), by Robb White and William Castle
"The most unusual thing I can think of would be a peaceful night. But if anything
is going to occur, don't dare to let me miss it." - Mary Roberts Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase
"A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a
whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window,
the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night." - J.M. Barrie, in
Little Minister
"No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes." - Thomas Carlyle, historian (1795-1881)
"I think a Person who is thus terrifyed with the Imagination of Ghosts and
Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians
sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks
the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless." - Joseph Addison, British author (1672 - 1719)
"Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls’ Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost’s right..." - William Butler Yeats, in All Souls' Night
Historical quotations about ghosts and hauntings
