Lord of a Visible World Quotes

“And even in the open air the stench of whiskey was appalling. To this fiendish poison, I am certain, the greater part of the squalor I saw is due. Many of these vermin were obviously not foreigners—I counted at least five American countenances in which a certain vanished decency half showed through the red whiskey bloating. Then I reflected upon the power of wine, and marveled how self-respecting persons can imbibe such stuff, or permit it to be served upon their tables. It is the deadliest enemy with which humanity is faced. Not all the European wars could produce a tenth of the havock occasioned among men by the wretched fluid which responsible governments allow to be sold openly. Looking upon that mob of sodden brutes, my mind’s eye pictured a scene of different kind; a table bedecked with spotless linen and glistening silver, surrounded by gentlemen immaculate in evening attire—and in the reddening faces of those gentlemen I could trace the same lines which appeared in full development of the beasts of the crowd. Truly, the effects of liquor are universal, and the shamelessness of man unbounded. How can reform be wrought in the crowd, when supposedly respectable boards groan beneath the goblets of rare old vintages? Is mankind asleep, that its enemy is thus entertained as a bosom friend? But a week or two ago, at a parade held in honour of the returning Rhode Island National Guard, the Chief Executive of this State, Mr. Robert Livingston Beeckman, prominent in New York, Newport, and Providence society, appeared in such an intoxicated condition that he could scarce guide his mount, or retain his seat in the saddle, and he the guardian of the liberties and interests of that Colony carved by the faith, hope, and labour of Roger Williams from the wilderness of savage New-England! I am perhaps an extremist on the subject of prohibition, but I can see no justification whatsoever for the tolerance of such a degrading demon as drink.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“Therefore I invariably warn all bards—in the slang of the day—to be themselves; saying what they wish to say as they wish to say it, and allowing the masters to influence them only indirectly—broadening their sensitivenesses and capacities for imaginative experience rather than affecting their habits of utterance.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“And if there be any less obvious forces, I desire to know them and their relation to me as well. Foolish, do I hear you say? Undoubtedly! I had better be a consistent pragmatist: get drunk and confine myself to a happy, swinish, contented little world—the gutter—till some policeman’s No. 13 boot intrudes upon my philosophic repose. But I cannot. Why? Because some well-defined human impulse prompts me to discard the relative for the absolute.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“I was as close to the state of vegetation as any animal well can be—perhaps I might best have been compared to the lowly potato”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“writing out a mood on paper so that it could be recaptured”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“Our force had very rigid regulations, and carried in its pockets a standard working equipment consisting of police whistle, magnifying-glass, electric flashlight, handcuffs, (sometimes plain twine, but “handcuffs” for all that!) tin badge, (I have mine still!!) tape measure, (for footprints) revolver, (mine was the real thing, but Inspector Munroe (aet 12) had a water squirt-pistol while Inspector Upham (aet 10) worried along with a cap-pistol) and copies of all newspaper accounts of desperate criminals at large—plus a paper called The Detective, which printed pictures and descriptions of outstanding “wanted” malefactors.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“The Welsh, who have no Teutonic blood, are of little account.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters

“for in following my natural inclination toward fantastic and imaginative fiction I have again stumbled upon a thing for which the majority care little.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters