Arthur Machen quotes

We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing.

— Spoken by a character · VII. THE ENCOUNTER IN SOHO

Such forces cannot be named, cannot be spoken, cannot be imagined except under a veil and a symbol, a symbol to the most of us appearing a quaint, poetic fancy, to some a foolish tale.

— Spoken by a character · VII. THE ENCOUNTER IN SOHO

You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things—yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet—I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes.

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT

They called it seeing the god Pan.

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT

There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these ‘chases in Arras, dreams in a career,’ beyond them all as beyond a veil.

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT

But you and I, at all events, have known something of the terror that may dwell in the secret place of life, manifested under human flesh; that which is without form taking to itself a form.

— Spoken by a character · VII. THE ENCOUNTER IN SOHO

‘In every grain of wheat there lies hidden the soul of a star.’

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT

I knew I had looked into the eyes of a lost soul, Austin, the man’s outward form remained, but all hell was within it.

— Spoken by a character · VI. THE SUICIDES

It will level utterly the solid wall of sense, and probably, for the first time since man was made, a spirit will gaze on a spirit-world.

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT

Clarke, Mary will see the god Pan!

— Spoken by a character · I. THE EXPERIMENT