In selfish men caution is as secure an armor for their foes as for themselves.

— Bram Stoker

I suppose it is that sickness and weakness are selfish things and turn our inner eyes and sympathy on ourselves, whilst health and strength give love rein, and in thought and feeling he can wander where he wills.

— Bram Stoker

I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him.

— Bram Stoker

It all seems like a horrible tragedy, with fate pressing on relentlessly to some destined end. Everything that one does seems, no matter how right it may be, to bring on the very thing which is most to be deplored.

— Bram Stoker

It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he makes them all dance to the tune he plays. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he comes like the sunshine, and he eases off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.

— Bram Stoker

It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import.

— Bram Stoker

It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered selfishness, then we should pause before we condemn anyone for the vice of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its causes than we have knowledge of.

— Bram Stoker

It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.

— Bram Stoker

I was in doubt, and then everything took a hue of unreality, and I did not know what to trust, even the evidence of my own senses. Not knowing what to trust, I did not know what to do; and so had only to keep on working in what had hitherto been the groove of my life. The groove ceased to avail me, and I mistrusted myself.

— Bram Stoker

Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, 'May I come in?' is not the true laughter. No! He is a king, and he comes when and how he is like. He asks no person; he chooses no time of suitability. He says, 'I am here.' ... Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he makes them all dance to the tune he plays. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall - all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. And believe me, friend John, that he is good to come, and kind. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he comes like the sunshine, and he eases off the strain again; and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.

— Bram Stoker