Quotes from Phantoms

Dean Koontz ·  448 pages

Rating: (60.5K votes)


“Maybe the devil in human beings isn't the reflection of the devil, perhaps the devil is only a reflection of the savagery and brutality of our kind. Maybe what we've done is create the devil in our own image”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“There's no use wasting are energy being afraid of the devils, demons and things that go bump in the night... Because ultimately we'll never encounter anything more terrifying than the monster among us. Hell is where we make it.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“There are silences and silences. No one of them is like another. There is the silence of grief in velvet-draped rooms of a plushly carpeted funeral parlor which is far different from the bleak and terrible silence of grief in a widower's lonely bedroom.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“A swelled head is just a result of nature's frenzied efforts to fill a vacuum.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“But all organic matter must have cell structure,” Sara said. “Cell structure is virtually a definition of organic matter, a requisite of all living tissue, plant or animal.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms



“He saw that, without exception, human beings were driven by self-interest.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“mankind was, in reality, the most ruthless, dangerous, unforgiving species on earth.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“The mild wind made the trees sway gently, in a lullaby rhythm, and the resultant susurration was like the soft sighs and dreamy murmurs of a thousand peacefully slumbering children.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“She turned to him, shook her head. Her black hair tossed, and the beams of the late-afternoon sunlight played upon it, sending brief ripples of red and green and blue through it the same way that light, shimmering on the black surface of oil, creates short-lived, wriggling rainbows.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


“That was when you discovered she’d recently begun using PCP—what’s sometimes called ‘angel dust’ on the street.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms



“Even though she knew it wasn't biologically possible for her heart to rise into her throat, she swallowed it anyway.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Phantoms


About the author

Dean Koontz
Born place: in Everett, Pennsylvania, The United States
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“Jest, i kod njega, kome je nekoć bila tako strana svaka sitničavost, razvila se neka vrsta pedanterije, premda je ta pedanterija imala svoj korijen u drugom tjelesnom ustrojistvu i rodila se iz drugačijeg raspoloženja.

Osjećao se praznim; nedostajao mu jeplan koji bi mu dao poticaja, neki zanimljiv posao kome bi se mogao s veseljem i zadovoljstvom posvetiti. Njegov nagon za djelatnošću, nesposobnost njegova duha da miruje, njegova aktivnost - bijahu oduvijek nešto posve drugo negoli prirodna i ustrajna volja za radom kod njegovih predaka: naime, nešto umjetno, impuls njegovih živaca, zapravo neko opojno sredstvo, baš kao male i oštre ruske cigarete koje je stalno pušio. Ta ga aktivnost nije napustila, njome je on vladao manje no ikada, ona je gospodarila njime i mučila ga, trošeći se na sijaset trica i ništavnosti. Gubio se u tisuću beznačajnih sitnica koje su se uglavnom odnosile na održavanje kuće i njegove toalete, a koje bi odlagao, jer su mu dojadile, te ih nije više mogao ni pamtiti, ni srediti, jer su ga stajale nerazmjerno mnogo pažnje i vremena.

Ono što su u gradu nazivali njegovom "taštinom" toliko se pogoršalo, da se već odavna počeo toga stideti, a ipak nije bio kadar okaniti se navika koje su se razvile u tom pravcu. Nije mogao napustiti kabinet sa sviješću da je nešto propustio ili samo površno obavio, jer se bojao da će mu izmaći onaj osjećaj svježine, mira, intaktnosti, koji ga je ipak napuštao poslije jednog sata, te ga je onda opet trebalo mukom obnoviti.

U kabinetu je provodio mnogo vremena, i to ne samo ujutro, već i prije svakog ručka, svake sjednice u senatu, svake javne skupštine, ukratko, uvijek pre no što će se pokazati pred ljudima i kretati se među njima.

Zaista! Život Thomasa Buddenbrooka pretvorio se u život glumca, i to takvog glumca kome je čitav život, do najmanje i najsvakodnevnije sitnice, postao samo velikom glumom koja ga stalno drži u napetosti i stalno iscrpljuje...

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― Thomas Mann, quote from Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family


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