The King in Yellow Quotes

“Ah," she said, "to come is easy and takes hours; to go is different—and may take centuries.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask. I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth—a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“for I knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only God to cry to now.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“There a painless death awaits him who can no longer bear the sorrows of this life.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“No, he is not vicious, nor is he in the least demented. His mind is a wonder chamber, from which he can extract treasures that you and I would give years of our life to acquire.”
― Robert W Chambers, The Yellow King: The Complete Collection

“Come and see my rose-coloured bath full of death!”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“This is the thing that troubles me, for I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The ambition of Caesar and of Napoleon pales before that which could not rest until it had seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts,”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“THERE are so many things which are impossible to explain! Why should certain chords in music make me think of the brown and golden tints of autumn foliage? Why should the Mass of Sainte-Cécile send my thoughts wandering among caverns whose walls blaze with ragged masses of virgin silver? What was it in the roar and turmoil of Broadway at six o'clock that flashed before my eyes the picture of a still Breton forest where sunlight filtered through spring foliage, and Sylvia bent, half curiously, half tenderly, over a small, green lizard, murmuring, "To think that this also is a little ward of God?”
― Robert William Chambers, The King in Yellow

“I saw the lake of Hali, thin and blank, without a ripple or wind to stir it, and I saw the towers of Carcosa behind the moon. Aldebaran, the Hyades, Alar, Hastur, glided through the cloud-rifts which fluttered and flapped as they passed like the scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The mask of self-deception was not longer a mask for me, it was a part of me. Night lifted it, laying bare the stifled truth below; but there was no one to see except myself, and when day broke the mask fell back again of its own accord.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The laws prohibiting suicide and providing punishment for any attempt at self-destruction have been repealed. The Government has seen fit to acknowledge the right of man to end an existence which may have become intolerable to him, through physical suffering or mental despair.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The ambition of Caesar and of Napoleon pales before that which could not rest until it had seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts," said Mr. Wilde. "You are speaking of the King in Yellow," I groaned, with a shudder. "He is a king whom emperors have served." "I am content to serve him," I replied.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The mask of self-deception was no longer a mask for me, it was a part of me. Night lifted it, laying bare the stifled truth below; but there was no one to see except myself,”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“There a painless death awaits him who can no longer bear the sorrows of this life. If death is welcome let him seek it there.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Songs that the Hyades shall sing, Where flap the tatters of the King, Must die unheard in Dim Carcosa.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Is it nonsense," I asked, managing to suppress what I felt—"is it nonsense when he says that the tassets and cuissards of the enamelled suit of armor commonly known as the 'Prince's Emblazoned' can be found among a mass of rusty theatrical properties, broken stoves, and rag-picker's refuse in a garret in Pell Street?”
― Robert William Chambers, The King in Yellow

“What a precious triple donkey I had made of myself!”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Shall I tell you all about her, cat? She is very beautiful – your mistress,’ he murmured drowsily, ‘and her hair is heavy as burnished gold. I could paint her – not on canvas – for I should need shades and tones and hues and dyes more splendid than the iris of a splendid rainbow. I could only paint her with closed eyes, for in dreams alone can such colours as I need be found. For her eyes, I must have azure from skies untroubled by a cloud – the skies of dreamland. For her lips, roses from the palaces of slumberland, and for her brow, snow-drifts from mountains which tower in fantastic pinnacles to the moons – oh, much higher than our moon here”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Ne raillons pas les fous; leur folie dure plus longtemps que la nôtre.... Voila toute la différence.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Strange in the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But Stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Strange is the night where black stars rise, And strange moons circle through the skies, But stranger still is Lost Carcosa”
― Robert William Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The light on the Palace windows had died away, and the dome of the Pantheon swam aglow above the northern terrace, a fiery Valhalla in the sky; while below in grim array, along the terrace ranged, the marble ranks of queens looked out into the west.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“At last he whispered: 'Sylvia, it is I.'
Again he said, 'It is I.'
Then, knowing that she was dead, he kissed her on the mouth. And through the long watches of the night the cat purred on his knee, tightening and relaxing her padded claws, until the sky paled above the Street of the Four Winds.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“Wings,” she murmured, “oh, yes—to fly away with when he’s tired of his play. Of course it was a man who conceived the idea of wings, otherwise Cupid would have been insupportable.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“At last I was King, King by my right in Hastur, King because I knew the mystery of the Hyades, and my mind had sounded the depths of the Lake of Hali. I was King! The first grey pencillings of dawn would raise a tempest which would shake two hemispheres.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

“The time had come, the people should know the son of Hastur, and the whole world bow to the black stars which hang in the sky over Carcosa.”
― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow