Quotes from The Shrinking Man

Richard Matheson ·  201 pages

Rating: (5.8K votes)


“It was more than a spider. It was every unknown terror in the world fused into wriggling, poison-jawed horror. It was every anxiety, insecurity, and fear in his life given a hideous, night-black form.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man


“To look at the entire journey all at once was stupidity. You thought of it in segments; that was the only way.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man


“Memory was such a worthless thing, really. Nothing it dealt with was attainable. It was concerned with phantom acts and feelings, with all that was uncapturable except in thought. It was without satisfaction. Mostly, it hurt…”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man


“Perhaps jungle life, despite physical danger, was a relaxing one. Surely it was free of the petty grievances, the disparate values of society. It was simple, devoid of artifice and ulcer-burning pressures.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man


“But now, in the final hours, even hope had vanished. Yet he could smile. At a point without hope he had found contentment. He knew he had tried and there was nothing to be sorry for. And this was complete victory, because it was a victory over himself.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man



“This, he knew, was courage, the truest, ultimate courage, because there was no one here to sympathize or praise him for it. What he felt was felt without the hope of commendation.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from The Shrinking Man


About the author

Richard Matheson
Born place: in Allendale, New Jersey, The United States
Born date February 20, 1926
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I had stood and stared at the webbing of steel then wished for a hole to climb through. The wires had just unraveled without setting off the klaxon. I remembered thinking with a horrible kind of panic that I had somehow done withcraft, and was convinced I was the blackest kind of evil. Then I realized how ridiculous I was being, and figured it was a coincidental gift from the universe, or something.”
― Penelope Fletcher, quote from Demon Girl


“I guess I just struggle with belonging to any organization. I always feel like I should be able to do it on my own. My ego tells me I'm better than all this... I want to rebel against it, though of course, I don't really have any options.”
― Nic Sheff, quote from Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines


“I wondered whether mad people would be better off if their memories could be neatened up, or taken off the shelves on which they were stored and replaced with nicer ones, and if they'd be the same person then, or completely different ones, and whether dreams were like a vandal rampaging through a library of memories, tearing out random pages and turning them into paper boats...”
― quote from The FitzOsbornes in Exile


“Who says all the lines of love are supposed to match up? I'd never thought about it that way before - that maybe your perfect other wasn't everything you already were, but everything you were never going to be.”
― Tiffany Baker, quote from The Little Giant of Aberdeen County


“When Jackson used that particular tone of voice, men died, pure and simple.”
― Christine Feehan, quote from Safe Harbor


Interesting books

The Winter Rose
(16.8K)
The Winter Rose
by Jennifer Donnelly
A Lick of Frost
(28.2K)
A Lick of Frost
by Laurell K. Hamilton
On Beauty
(53.5K)
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Down London Road
(43.1K)
Down London Road
by Samantha Young
The Man in the Brown Suit
(64.1K)
The Man in the Brown...
by Agatha Christie
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
(25.6K)
Chinese Cinderella:...
by Adeline Yen Mah

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.