#sinister

The sinister, the terrible never deceive: the state in which they leave us is always one of enlightenment. And only this condition of vicious insight allows us a full grasp of the world, all things considered, just as a frigid melancholy grants us full possession of ourselves. We may hide from horror only in the heart of horror. (“The Medusa”) ↗

— Thomas Ligotti

#horror #insight #sinister #terror #insight

To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#sanity

While I was writing Wild Swans I thought the famine was the result of economic mismanagement but during the research I realised that it was something more sinister. ↗

— Jung Chang

#economic #famine #i #mismanagement #more

I moved further and further away from mass entertainment. The sexual element became increasingly sinister and bizarre. Don't blame me! The bastards drove me to it! They all backed off after that! ↗

— Robert Crumb

#away #backed #bastards #became #bizarre

The most sinister aspect of Jack is his detachment, his ability to distance himself from his feelings. ↗

— Victor Garber

#aspect #detachment #distance #feelings #himself

It is an interesting fact that during my tour I was never allowed access to computers, radios, or anything else that I might damage through curiosity, or perhaps something more sinister. ↗

— Robert B. Laughlin

#allowed #anything #computers #curiosity #damage

I may have taken someone through the wringer psychologically, but I've never been sinister. ↗

— John Mayer

#i #may #never #psychologically #sinister

Life would be a great deal easier if dead things had the decency to remain dead. ↗

— Doug MacLeod

#humour #random #sinister #funny

When she opened her eyes they were confronted by a musical box against the opposite wall - one of those early Bavarian toys where mechanical figures perform to the tune. 'How odd,' she thought. The little stage showed a group of fiddlers, two couples in costumes like those of the ball she had just quitted, and in a doorway at the side, a gypsy or beggar man. Very faintly the distant waltz came to her ears, but no footsteps ringing in the abandoned halls. With her hand pressed to her unsteady heart, acting under a sudden compulsion, she pushed down the lever. Delicate plucked music started up; the fiddlers sawed with their clumsy arms in time to an ethereal waltz. The couples moved jerkily out and each raised an arm to clasp its partner. To various clicks and rumbles from under the floor they began to revolve with each other and to orbit round the room. Their movements were sinister because of being both reluctant and predestined. Here they were and this is was what they must do. ("Many Coloured Glass") ↗

— L.M. Boston

#mannequin #sinister #toy #music

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend. ↗

— William Blake

#become #enemy #friend #means #person