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2. “There are immeasurable star misty aeons of universes more numerous than the sands in all the galaxies, multiplied by a billion lightyears of multiplication, in fact if I were to go on you'd be scared and couldn't comprehend and you'd despair so much you'd drop dead,′ that's what he just about said in one of those sutras – -.”
Jack Kerouac
Cosmic Scale, Incomprehensibility, Existential Dread, Buddhist Wisdom, Universal Vastness
3. “We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period.” Jack Kerouac Overwhelm, Coping, Life, Alcohol, Existential Dread
6. “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” Edgar Allan Poe Mortality, Decay, Existential Dread, Philosophical Reflection, Societal Critique, Thematic Depth
7. “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame.” Edgar Allan Poe Madness, Possession, Emotional Turmoil, Philosophical Insight, Psychological Horror, Existential Dread
8. “My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow and tears, upon some gray and desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown.” Edgar Allan Poe Despair, Fear, Existential Dread, Philosophical Insight, Emotional Depth, Poetic Imagery
9. “To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever.” Edgar Allan Poe Nature, Darkness, Despair, Philosophical Imagery, Emotional Depth, Existential Dread
12. “Horrors of a nature most stern and most appalling would too frequently obtrude themselves upon my mind, and shake the innermost depths of my soul with the bare supposition of their possibility.” Edgar Allan Poe Horror, Fear, Psychological Insight, Philosophical Reflection, Emotional Turmoil, Existential Dread
14. “For many hours the immediate vicinity of the low framework upon which I lay had been literally swarming with rats. They were wild, bold, ravenous – their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but for motionless on my part to make me their prey. “To what food,” I thought, “have they been accustomed in the well?” Edgar Allan Poe Fear, Survival, Nature, Philosophical Imagery, Emotional Tension, Existential Dread
16. “The summit of the cataract was utterly lost in the dimness and the distance. Yet we were evidently approaching it with a hideous velocity. At intervals there were visible in it wide, yawning, but momentary rents, and from out these rents, within which was a chaos of flitting and indistinct images, there came rushing and mighty, but soundless wings, tearing up the enkindled ocean in their course.” Edgar Allan Poe Nature, Chaos, Perception, Philosophical Insight, Poetic Imagery, Existential Dread
19. “Let me be no nearer In death's dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves In a field Behaving as the wind behaves No nearer – Not that final meeting In the twilight kingdom.” T.S. Eliot Death, Disguises, Kingdom, Existential Dread, Poetic Imagery, Spiritual Alienation
23. “The fear of death in the one place was not as strong as another kind of fear, the fear of a world gone crazy, a place where anything could happen, where nothing could be trusted, where nothing was certain. A terrible place.” Orson Scott Card Fear, Death, Chaos, Uncertainty, Trust, Existential Dread
25. “The night sky is only a sort of carbon paper, Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars Letting in the light, peephole after peephole – A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.” Sylvia Plath Sky Darkness, Cosmic Emptiness, Starlit Void, Death’s Light, Introspective Gaze, Existential Dread
28. “The reason I hadn’t washed my clothes or my hair was because it seemed so silly. I saw the days of the year stretching ahead like a series of bright, white boxes, and separating one box from another was sleep, like a black shade. Only for me, the long perspective of shades that set off one box from the next had suddenly snapped up, and I could see day after day after day glaring ahead of me like a white, broad, infinitely desolate avenue.” Sylvia Plath Repetition, Monotony, Isolation, Existential Dread, Self-neglect, Boredom
Existential Dread Quotes by Famous Authors
2. “There are immeasurable star misty aeons of universes more numerous than the sands in all the galaxies, multiplied by a billion lightyears of multiplication, in fact if I were to go on you'd be scared and couldn't comprehend and you'd despair so much you'd drop dead,′ that's what he just about said in one of those sutras – -.”
Jack Kerouac Cosmic Scale, Incomprehensibility, Existential Dread, Buddhist Wisdom, Universal Vastness
3. “We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period.”
Jack Kerouac Overwhelm, Coping, Life, Alcohol, Existential Dread
6. “And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
Edgar Allan Poe Mortality, Decay, Existential Dread, Philosophical Reflection, Societal Critique, Thematic Depth
7. “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame.”
Edgar Allan Poe Madness, Possession, Emotional Turmoil, Philosophical Insight, Psychological Horror, Existential Dread
8. “My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow and tears, upon some gray and desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown.”
Edgar Allan Poe Despair, Fear, Existential Dread, Philosophical Insight, Emotional Depth, Poetic Imagery
9. “To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever.”
Edgar Allan Poe Nature, Darkness, Despair, Philosophical Imagery, Emotional Depth, Existential Dread
12. “Horrors of a nature most stern and most appalling would too frequently obtrude themselves upon my mind, and shake the innermost depths of my soul with the bare supposition of their possibility.”
Edgar Allan Poe Horror, Fear, Psychological Insight, Philosophical Reflection, Emotional Turmoil, Existential Dread
14. “For many hours the immediate vicinity of the low framework upon which I lay had been literally swarming with rats. They were wild, bold, ravenous – their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but for motionless on my part to make me their prey. “To what food,” I thought, “have they been accustomed in the well?”
Edgar Allan Poe Fear, Survival, Nature, Philosophical Imagery, Emotional Tension, Existential Dread
16. “The summit of the cataract was utterly lost in the dimness and the distance. Yet we were evidently approaching it with a hideous velocity. At intervals there were visible in it wide, yawning, but momentary rents, and from out these rents, within which was a chaos of flitting and indistinct images, there came rushing and mighty, but soundless wings, tearing up the enkindled ocean in their course.”
Edgar Allan Poe Nature, Chaos, Perception, Philosophical Insight, Poetic Imagery, Existential Dread
19. “Let me be no nearer In death's dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves In a field Behaving as the wind behaves No nearer – Not that final meeting In the twilight kingdom.”
T.S. Eliot Death, Disguises, Kingdom, Existential Dread, Poetic Imagery, Spiritual Alienation
23. “The fear of death in the one place was not as strong as another kind of fear, the fear of a world gone crazy, a place where anything could happen, where nothing could be trusted, where nothing was certain. A terrible place.”
Orson Scott Card Fear, Death, Chaos, Uncertainty, Trust, Existential Dread
25. “The night sky is only a sort of carbon paper, Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars Letting in the light, peephole after peephole – A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.”
Sylvia Plath Sky Darkness, Cosmic Emptiness, Starlit Void, Death’s Light, Introspective Gaze, Existential Dread
28. “The reason I hadn’t washed my clothes or my hair was because it seemed so silly. I saw the days of the year stretching ahead like a series of bright, white boxes, and separating one box from another was sleep, like a black shade. Only for me, the long perspective of shades that set off one box from the next had suddenly snapped up, and I could see day after day after day glaring ahead of me like a white, broad, infinitely desolate avenue.”
Sylvia Plath Repetition, Monotony, Isolation, Existential Dread, Self-neglect, Boredom
