Darkness quotes
1.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside darkness — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Popular music had never had lyrical sophistication of this type [like Bob Dylan]; wit, to be sure, but "Darkness at the break of noon/Shadows even the silver spoon/The handmade blade, the child's balloon/Eclipses both the sun and moon/To understand you know too soon/ There is no sense in trying"? No."
"Once I knew the depth where no hope was and darkness lay on the face of all things. Then love came and set my soul free."
"While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by the darkness and find the true light"
"What darkness to you is light to me"
"If there is always light, you don’t experience light anymore. You have to have the rhythm of light and darkness."
"Oh, I'd love to wear a rainbow everyday, And tell the world that everything's okay, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, Till things are brighter, I'm the Man in Black."
"It is better to light one small candle of gratitude than to curse the darkness."
"Human beings do not know their place and purpose. They have fallen from their true place, and lost their true purpose. They search everywhere for their place and purpose, with great anxiety. But they cannot find them because they are surrounded by darkness."
"How terrible this darkness was, how bewildering, and yet mysteriously beautiful!"
"Reality is to be found in lightness and darkness."
"When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer."
"Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness."
"I said some words to the close and holy darkness and then I slept."
"If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride, and hug it in mine arms."
"No one knows what he himself is made of, except his own spirit within him, yet there is still some part of him which remains hidden even from his own spirit; but you, Lord, know everything about a human being because you have made him...Let me, then, confess what I know about myself, and confess too what I do not know, because what I know of myself I know only because you shed light on me, and what I do not know I shall remain ignorant about until my darkness becomes like bright noon before your face."
"Diamonds are to be found only in the darkness of the earth, and truth in the darkness of the mind."
"To drive out the darkness, bring in the light."
"No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars."
"For I am every dead thing In whom love wrought new alchemy For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness He ruined me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death; things which are not."
"The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness."
