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" Throw a stick, and the servile dog wheezes and pants and shambles to bring it to you. Do the same before a cat, and he will eye you with coolly polite and somewhat bored amusement. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Cat
You
Will
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" Horrors, I believe, should be original - the use of common myths and legends being a weakening influence. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Legends
Influence
Believe
" Horror and the unknown or the strange are always closely connected so that it is hard to create a convincing picture of shattered natural law or cosmic alienage or 'outsideness' without laying stress on the emotion of fear. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Stress
Picture
Law
" 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
Stories
Close
Course
" I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Dreams
Business
Thoughts
" Of our relation to all creation we can never know anything whatsoever. All is immensity and chaos. But, since all this knowledge of our limitations cannot possibly be of any value to us, it is better to ignore it in our daily conduct of life. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Life
Chaos
Value
" Man's respect for the imponderables varies according to his mental constitution and environment. Through certain modes of thought and training, it can be elevated tremendously, yet there is always a limit. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Respect
Man
Training
" 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
Live
Furniture
Week
" There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Thoughts
Life
Children
" 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
Story
Picture
Great
" I am not very proud of being an human being; in fact, I distinctly dislike the species in many ways. I can readily conceive of beings vastly superior in every respect. "
H. P. Lovecraft
I Am
I Can
Proud
" 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
True
Help
Alone
" The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Life
Degree
Everyday
" Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long - then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every acquired inhibition, plunging viciously after the object wished; all the more fantastically savage because of previous repression. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Down
Will
Long
" The sole ultimate factor in human decisions is physical force. This we must learn, however repugnant the idea may seem, if we are to protect ourselves and our institutions. Reliance on anything else is fallacious and ruinous. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Human
Protect
Learn
" I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Information
I Am
Opinion
" 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
Tell
Street
Will
" We must realise that man's nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilisation is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake. To preserve civilisation, we must deal scientifically with the brute element, using only genuine biological principles. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Long
Man
Nature
" It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Peace
Black
Life
" The earliest English attempts at rhyming probably included words whose agreement is so slight that it deserves the name of mere 'assonance' rather than that of actual rhyme. "
H. P. Lovecraft
English
Name
Whose
" In writing a weird story, I always try very carefully to achieve the right mood and atmosphere and place the emphasis where it belongs. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Achieve
Writing
Weird
" Even when the characters are supposed to be accustomed to the wonder, I try to weave an air of awe and impressiveness corresponding to what the reader should feel. A casual style ruins any serious fantasy. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Style
Feel
Fantasy
" The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Fascination
Black
Process
" No breed of cats in its proper condition can by any stretch of the imagination be thought of as even slightly ungraceful - a record against which must be pitted the depressing spectacle of impossibly flattened bulldogs, grotesquely elongated dachshunds, hideously shapeless and shaggy Airedales, and the like. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Like
Even
Cats
" 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
Care
Top
Safe
" An excellent habit to cultivate is the analytical study of the King James Bible. For simple yet rich and forceful English, this masterly production is hard to equal; and even though its Saxon vocabulary and poetic rhythm be unsuited to general composition, it is an invaluable model for writers on quaint or imaginative themes. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Study
Bible
Habit
" 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
Care
Wish
Me
" 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
People
Think
I Am
" That metre itself forms an essential part of all true poetry is a principle which not even the assertions of an Aristotle or the pronouncements of a Plato can disestablish. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Plato
Even
Poetry
" 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
Try
True
Religion
" The monotony of a long heroic poem may often be pleasantly relieved by judicious interruptions in the perfect succession of rhymes, just as the metre may sometimes be adorned with occasional triplets and Alexandrines. "
H. P. Lovecraft
Poem
Long
Perfect