“Without a doubt there were vampire dogs; he had seen and heard them outside his house at night. But they were only dogs.”

—  Richard Matheson, book I Am Legend

Source: I Am Legend (1954), Ch. 2
Context: They were strange, the facts about them: their staying inside by day, their avoidance of garlic, their death by stake, their reputed fear of crosses, their supposed dread of mirrors.
Take that last, now. According to legend, they were invisible in mirrors, but he knew that was untrue. As untrue as the belief that they transformed themselves into bats. That was a superstition that logic, plus observation had easily disposed of. ‘It was equally foolish to believe that they could transform themselves into wolves. Without a doubt there were vampire dogs; he had seen and heard them outside his house at night. But they were only dogs.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Without a doubt there were vampire dogs; he had seen and heard them outside his house at night. But they were only dogs." by Richard Matheson?
Richard Matheson photo
Richard Matheson58
American fiction writer 1926–2013

Related quotes

“The dog had no name. For a dog to have a name someone must have him and someone must love him, and a dog must have someone. The dog had no one, and no one had the dog. The dog had only the silent empty countryside of the few houses. The dog had only the crumbs and cleaned bones he could pick up at the few houses. The dog had only himself, so the dog had nothing, and he was afraid.”

Meindert DeJong book Hurry Home

Hurry Home, Candy (1953)

Jack London photo

“…men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild (1903)

Stephen King photo

“He told himself that everything was fine — he only had to look at the sleeping dog on the floor if he doubted — but in the middle of the night it was hard to be an optimist. When the dawn was still long hours away, bad thoughts took on flesh and began to walk. In the middle of the night thoughts became zombies.”

Stephen King book Under the Dome

Nyuck-Nyuck-Nyuck, 11, p. 286-287 (First Scribner hardcover edition November 2009)
Under the Dome (2009)

Cesare Pavese photo

“He told them it was only dogs that bark and go for strange dogs, and men set on a dog because it suits them to show that they are still masters, but if the dogs weren't dumb animals they would come to an agreements with each other and start barking at them.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

Source: The moon and the bonfire (1950), Chapter XVIII, p. 107

P.G. Wodehouse photo

“It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.”

P.G. Wodehouse book My Man Jeeves

Source: My Man Jeeves

Bertrand Russell photo

“A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), part II, chapter 1, p. 74
1940s

Rachel Trachtenburg photo

“My dad played in different clubs and open mic nights. But he mostly walked dogs. A lot of dogs.”

Rachel Trachtenburg (1993) American musician

Rachel's story of how her father, Jason, started out performing.
Off & On Broadway documentary (2006)

Charles Darwin photo

“The love of a dog for his master is notorious; in the agony of death he has been known to caress his master, and every one has heard of the dog suffering under vivisection, who licked the hand of the operator; this man, unless he had a heart of stone, must have felt remorse to the last hour of his life.”

Charles Darwin book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter II: &quot;Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals&quot;, page 40 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=53&amp;itemID=F937.1&amp;viewtype=image <br class="br">The Descent of Man (1871)

Tom Regan photo

“From my reading of Gandhi I had learned how some people in India regard eating cow as unspeakably repulsive. I realized I felt the same way about cats and dogs: I could never eat them. Were cows so different from cats and dogs that there were two moral standards, one that applies to cows, another that applies to cats and dogs? Were pigs so different? Were any of the animals I ate so different?”

Tom Regan book Empty Cages

Source: Empty Cages (2004), Ch. 2

Karl Kraus photo

“There is no doubt that a dog is loyal. But does that mean we should emulate him? After all, he is loyal to people, not to other dogs.”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Related topics