Children will always be afraid of the dark, and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own globe in unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse.” — “Supernatural Horror in Literature

Children will always be afraid of the dark, and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own globe in unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. / Nije problem dijete koje se boji mraka; prava tragedija su odrasli koji se boje svjetla.

You musn’t be afraid of the dark.’
‘I’m not,’ said Shadow. ‘I’m afraid of the people in the dark.

Like so many other fairy tales, I thought it was a horror story.

If you are afraid of the dark, you seek the light. But what do you do when even the light is filled with terrors?

The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think. It’s an extraordinary declaration, asserting that the unknown need not be turned into the known through false divination or the projection of grim political or ideological narratives; it’s a celebration of darkness, willing – as that “I think” indicates — to be uncertain even about its own assertion. Most people are afraid of the dark. Literally when it comes to children, while many adults fear, above all, the darkness that is the unknown, the unseeable, the obscure. And yet the night in which distinctions and definitions cannot be readily made is the same night in which love is made, in which things merge, change, become enchanted, aroused, impregnated, possessed, released, renewed.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other

Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children, is increased with tales,

So goes the story: but to me
it's hardly plausible
that the sun, with its golden smile,
should turn from its fiery home
to cause mortal misfortune
for mortal rights and wrongs.
But fairy tales that scare us humans
are useful for religion.

MEN fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other.

There is an afterlife to love
and there is love in the afterlife.

The idea that an afterlife had been invented to reassure people who couldn’t face the finality of death was no more plausible than the idea that the finality of death had been invented to reassure people who couldn’t face the nightmare of endless experience.