frightening Quotes

Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

“Five people—five frightened people. Five people who watched each other, who now hardly troubled to hide the state of their nervous tension. There was little pretense now….They were five enemies linked together by a mutual instinct of self-preservation.”

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire ... you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.”

“Even as he touched it, the general sensed his danger and leaped back with the agility of an ape.”

“He spoke to the dog ... but in his voice was a strange note of fear that frightened the animal. ”

“As a youngster I was frightened of the dark—used to wake up sobbing in it, as if it were water and I were drowning—but you will observe that I have disciplined myself so thoroughly against that fear, that I much prefer a dark to a lit room”

“I was quite frightened once or twice because Eliza was doing it so well. You see, lots of the real people can’t do it at all: they’re such fools that they think style comes by nature to people in their position; and so they never learn.”

“‘Yet they’re tiresome in the end,’ Emma said; ‘these days, what I really adore are stories that can be read all in one go, and that frighten you. I detest common heroes and moderate feelings, the sort that exist in real life.‘”

“Then the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally; but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”

“I stand as guilty as they. For I knew better and did not step forth to try to stop the madness. Certainly not in any manner that counted. I held back, afraid.”

“It’s not possible to be this frightened and to stay alive.”

“To frighten a man there must be something in the cupboard, must there not?”

“It’s a frightening world to be alone in.”

“This was the truth behind the handsome face and the miraculous powers, the truth that was the dead and empty space between the stars, a wasteland peopled by frightened monsters. ”

“He heard the soft ‘shu-u-u’ of the mortarshell for perhaps half a second. There was not even time to connect it with himself and frighten him, before there was a huge sunburst roaring of an explosion almost on top of him, then black blank darkness. He had a vague impression that someone screamed but did not know it was himself. ”

“Impulsively, Wilson drew aside the curtain. He did not know, immediately, if he would survive. [...] Imprisoned in this swollen mass, his heart pulsed strickenly, threatening to burst its case as Wilson sat, paralyzed. Only inches away, separated from him by the thickness of a piece of glass, the man was staring at him.”

″‘Whoever she is,’ Hall went on, ‘she’ll push me. And I’ll fall. Hundreds of feet.’ [...] ‘Mr. Hall, this is my receptionist, Miss Thomas.’ ‘No,’ Hall cried. ‘It’s her. It is. And I know who she is now, God save me! I know who she is!‘”

“Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scare–crow to frighten the blackbirds.”

“Peter sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with fright.”

“He was alone. In the roaring plane with no pilot he was alone. Alone.”

One day her teacher asks her why she’s always late for school. Frightened, she reveals her secret. Her punishment: she must write 200 lines stating repeatedly, “There are no talking cats, and from now on I will arrive at school on time.”

Dave McKean’s illustrations are both haunting and hilarious at the same time. The wolves are portrayed as drawings made by a child, as it is implied on the front cover of the book. The wolves are also drawn in both a frightening and humorous way throughout the book.

“When Harriet plays with matches, she is ‘burnt with all her clothes’ on. When Conrad sucks his thumbs, they are cut off by the ‘great, long, red-legg’d, scissor-man’.”

“His father was mean with the lamps and only kept one up in front for the road ahead, so Meshak hated being out on the highway at night. He was afraid of the dark. It was not just the spirit world which frightened him, but the real world of robbers and highwaymen, especially near the forest.”