Quotes about dark
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“As far as the Council is concerned, the U. S. Wardens are a bunch of mushrooms."
"Eh?"
"Kept in the dark and fed on bullshit.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

“My magic. That was at the heart of me. It was a manifestation of what I believed, what I lived. It came from my desire to see to it that someone stood between the darkness and the people it would devour.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

People, Heart

“Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Regained. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Can Never Be Lost.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

“Close, close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,

Close as two pages
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.

Each knows all
the other knows,
learned by heart
from head to toes.”

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet

Source: Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments

Books, Lovers, Sleep, Learning

“A great leap in the dark”

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588

“Whenever she thought she could not feel more alone, the universe peeled back another layer of darkness.”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

Source: Paint it Black

Feeling, Universe

“Caliph Vathek and his dark horde
Are bound for Hell, you won’t be bored!
Your faith in me will be restored—
Unless this token you find untoward
And my poor gift you have ignored.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Faith, Hell

“I can’t believe I was ever stupid enough to trust Noir. Come to the dark side. We have cookies. (Zeth)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

Stupidity

“Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems, moving poetry, and all theof that poetry. I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.”

Louis Aragon (1897–1982) French poet, novelist and editor

Source: Treatise on Style

Men, Beauty, Reading, Night

“Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said, constantly in the darkness,
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar.”

Joni Mitchell (1943) Canadian musician

Love, Star

“I want to see the thirst
inside the syllables
I want to touch the fire
in the sound:
I want to feel the darkness
of the cry. I want
words as rough
as virgin rocks.” - Verb.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Feeling, Cry

“Maybe that’s what we do to the people we love: we take shots in the dark and realize too late we’ve wounded the people we are trying to protect.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, People

“We're going' Anne said firmly.
So soon?' Percy pleaded. 'But stars come out at night.'
Then they fade at dawn', Anne replied. 'This star needs to veil herself in darkness.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Star, Night

“I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.”

Seamus Heaney book Death of a Naturalist

"Personal Helicon", line 19, from Eleven Poems (1965).
Other Quotes
Source: Death of a Naturalist

“You tried to drink the East River,"Magnus said, and Alec saw, as if for the first time, that Magnus's clothes were soaking wet too, sticking to his body like a dark second skin.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Drink, Time, Clothes

“here, here is my dark world. you carry it for a change. im out”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

World, Change

“I've played the powerless in too many dark scenes. I was blessed with a birth and a death and I guess I just want some say in between”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Talk To Me Now
Song lyrics
Variant: I was blessed with a birth and a death, and I guess I just want some say in-between.

Death, Birth

“Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn

Pt. III, The Theologian's Tale: Elizabeth, sec. IV.
Source: Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)

Life, Life, Silence, Distant

“I want to be in fifth grade again. Now, that is a deep dark secret, almost as big as the other one. Fifth grade was easy -- old enough to play outside without Mom, too young to go off the block. The perfect leash length.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Secret, Moms, Perfection

“Too much of anything could destroy you, Simon thought. Too much darkness could kill, but too much light could blind.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Light

“There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams, and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.”

Washington Irving book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

"The Wife".
Source: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)

Heart

“This is intimacy: the trading of stories in the dark.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

“Sorry, are you telling me that your demon-slaying buddies need to be driven to their next assignation with the forces of darkness by my mom?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon to Clary, pg. 332
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Moms

“In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck - and, of course, courage.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Source: Fatherhood

Love, Courage

“I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention & one day I decided I had better things to do.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Flowers

“… It makes me cry, I want to talk about something I am not sure I can talk about, I want to talk about the inside from the inside, I do not want to leave it
I am so happy in the silky damp dark of the labyrinth and there is no thread”

Hélène Cixous (1937) French philosopher and writer

Source: The Book of Promethea

Cry, Happiness

“From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest.
Darkness, you know, is relative.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“After a while, though the grief did not go away from us, it grew quiet. What had seemed a storm wailing through the entire darkness seemed to come in at last and lie down.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Jayber Crow

Lie

“Light came into the darkness, but the darkness didn't understand it," Susan said. "Look to the light. Only the light can save you from yourself.”

Ted Dekker book House

Variant: The light came into the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it, but that no longer mattered because the light was now obliteration the darkness.
Source: House

Understanding, Light

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep”

Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

General sources Source: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1923) http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171621 Context: The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

Deep, Good Night, Love

“Because, really, what was worse than lying wide-awake in the dark, watching your life drip away, one irreplaceable minute after another?”

Tom Perrotta The Abstinence Teacher

Source: The Abstinence Teacher

Life, Lying

“A man falling into dark waters seeks a momentary footing even on sliding stones.”

George Eliot book Silas Marner

Source: Silas Marner

Water

“Where we're standing right now, in the ruins in the dark, what we build could be anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

“Beware of organizations that proclaim their devotion to the light without embracing, bowing to the dark; for when they idealize half the world they must devalue the rest.”

Starhawk (1951) American author, activist and Neopagan

World, Light

“Dreams and death were old friends of his. He knew how to navigate their dark borderland.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Death, Dreams

“But when you read a book, what you see are black squiggles on pulped wood or, increasingly, dark pixels on a pale screen. To transform these icons into characters and events, you must imagine. And when you imagine, you create.”

Mohsin Hamid book How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Source: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Books, Imagination, Reading

“Yeah, well, he’s still on Dark-Hunter payroll, so tell him to keep his phone turned on. (Talon)
Ooo. Getting testy in your fierce nakedness. (Kyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“You guys are so… dark. Even if I used flash, I'm not sure it would come out."

"Y-yeah," Percy managed. "You guys aren't photogenic.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Guy

“In chains and darkness, wherefore should I stay, And mourn in prison, while I keep the key.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Harlequin

Source: The Harlequin

“Crying is right at hand in the smothering dark, closed inside someone else, when you see how everything you can ever accomplish will end up as trash.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Cry

“You're a man who has suffered and wants revenge,' she said. 'Your heart is dead, your soul is in darkness. The devil by your side is smiling because you are playing the game he invented.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Smile, Soul, Game, Revenge

“The stars looked like nail heads in the sky--pull a few of them out and the darkness would fall.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Star

“I'm not prepared for Rue's family. Her parents, whose faces are still fresh with sorrow. Her fiver younger siblings, who resemble her so closely. The slight builds, the luminous brown eyes. They form a flock of small dark birds.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Family, Bird, Parent, Siblings

“And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Soul, Solitude, Heart

“There is no reason why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Source: The Sun Also Rises

Light

“Where shadows dim with shadows mate,
in caverns deep and dark.
Where old books dream of bygone days,
when they were wood and bark…”

Walter Moers book The City of Dreaming Books

Source: The City of Dreaming Books

Books, Dreams

“We can't all be happy, we can't all be rich, we can't all be lucky - and it would be so much less fun if we were… There must be the dark background to show up the bright colours.”

Jean Rhys book Good Morning, Midnight

Source: Good Morning, Midnight

Happiness

“What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud?… the thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Memory

“The last good time always comes, and when you see the darkness creeping toward you, you hold on to what was bright and good. You hold on for dear life.”

Stephen King book Joyland

Source: Joyland

Life, Time

“You have a dark heart in you, Valentine's daughter.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Heart, Daughters

“Honey, I liked the Harry Potter movies, too, but that doesn’t mean I ran out and got a Dark Mark tattooed onto my left forearm like you did.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

Source: Blood Lite

Tattoo

“It's like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn't move.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

Love, Feeling, Passion

“She swore vengeance on all men with dark hearts.”

Lisa Papademetriou (1971) American writer

Source: Siren's Storm

Men, Heart

“Fear not, nor be dismayed at the appearance that is darkness, at the disguise that is evil, at the empty cloak that is death, for you have picked these for your challenges. They are stones on which you choose to whet the keen edge of your spirit.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Death, Fear, Appearance, Evil

“We believe what we see.’… What do you do when you’re in the dark?”

Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi

“When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God

“His blue eyes were very dark… Will's were the colour of the sky just on the edge of the night…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Night

“Inching one's way along a steep cliff in the dark: on reaching the highway, one breathes a sigh of relief. Just when one can't take any more, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

Beauty, Way, Heart

“A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. His auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

A Defence of Poetry http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html (1821)

Men, Solitude, Singing

“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“It is in the dark times that the light of friendship shines brightest.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Walk

Friendship, Light, Time

“When I am in the darkness, I want to think of it in the light, with you. - James Carstairs”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Thinking, Light

“I got lost in the night, without the light
of your eyelids, and when the night surrounded me
I was born again: I was the owner of my own darkness.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Light, Night

“There's a Mr. Hyde for every happy Jekyll face, a dark face on the other side of the mirror.”

Stephen King book Rage

Source: Rage

Happiness

“Remember, no matter how dark the night, there is always a happy ending. But first, you have to make it through the night.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Night, Happiness

“Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Light

“But how can we know that dragons did not exist? We have never actually BEEN to the Dark Ages.”

Cressida Cowell (1966) British writer

Source: A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons

Age

“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom
Variant: Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.

Universe, Cry

“Dark clouds bring waters, when the bright bring none.”

John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress

Source: The Pilgrim's Progress

Water

“Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.”

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 9 : The Scroll Marked II, p. 59.
Context: Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness because it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness because it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards because they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles because they are my challenge.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Love, Way, Star, Light

“Some praise the Lord for Light,
The living spark;
I thank God for the Night
The healing dark.”

Robert W. Service (1874–1958) Canadian poet

God, Light, Night

“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

Way, Knowledge, Light

“Interesting things happen in the dark…sometimes.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“… One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Variant: One thing yo learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.
Source: Unwind

People, Light, Learning

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

“Marius and Cosette were in the dark in regard to each other. They did not speak, they did not bow, they were not acquainted; they saw each other; and, like the stars in the sky separated by millions of leagues, they lived by gazing upon each other.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Star

“We move between two darknesses.”

E.M. Forster book Aspects of the Novel

Source: Aspects of the Novel

“Not much touches us, but we long to be touched. We lie awake at night willing the darkness to part and show us a vision.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion

Lie, Parting, Night

“‎It isn't enough to stand up and fight darkness. You've got to stand apart from it, too. You've got to be different from it.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

Fight

“He flushed, the colour dark against his pale skin. 'I mean. Tessa Gray, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?' Jem…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“How many people came and stayed a certain time,
Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you
Like light behind windblown fog and sand
Filtered and influenced by it, until no part
Remains that is surely you.”

John Ashbery (1927–2017) poet from the United States

People, Light, Time, Parting

“I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

People, Fear, Imagination, Thinking

“If he was winter, I was summer. If I was sunshine, he was night. A dark and stormy one.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Winter, Summer, Night

“As long as you have not grasped that you have to die to grow, you are a troubled guest on the dark earth.”

Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher

Attributed to Eliade in The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom (2011) edited by Diana Doroftei and Matthew Cross, this appears to be a translation of the last line of the poem "The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which, as translated by Robert Bly reads: And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.
Misattributed