Top 40 Darkness Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes

2. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

— Edgar Allan Poe

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Poetry Quotes, Creative Quotes, Art Quotes

3. “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also, if I am to be whole.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Identity Quotes, Opposites Quotes

4. “It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Also featured in: Quotes About Laughter

5. “It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”

— Thomas Fuller

Also featured in: Positive Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Wise Quotes, Important Quotes

6. “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Philosophical Quotes, Philosophy Quotes

7. “Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly.”

— Ali ibn Abi Talib

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Empowering Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes

8. “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”

— Rumi

Also featured in: Short Inspiring Quotes, Emotional Quotes, Spirituality Quotes, Growth Quotes

9. “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”

— Stephen King

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Winning Quotes, Real Quotes, Fear Quotes

10. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

— George Lucas

Also featured in: Emotion Quotes, Depression Quotes, Fear Quotes

11. “I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Also featured in: Giving Up Quotes, Depressing Quotes, Sad Quotes, Loss Quotes, Depression Quotes

12. “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Philosophical Quotes, Depressing Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Sorrow Quotes

13. “Light up the darkness.”

— Bob Marley

Also featured in: Short Motivational Quotes, Artist Quotes, Moving Quotes, Quotes About Songs

14. “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Quality Quotes, Quotes About Light

15. “For the night is dark and full of terrors.”

— George R.R. Martin

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Fear Quotes, Evil Quotes

16. “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Also featured in: Sarcastic Quotes, Truth Quotes, Beautiful Quotes, Crazy Quotes, Ego Quotes

17. “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Knowledge Quotes

18. “The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Emotional Quotes, Joy Quotes, Quotes About Light

19. “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Poetry Quotes, Desire Quotes, Creative Quotes

20. “It’s easier to run Replacing this pain with something numb It’s so much easier to go Than face all this pain here all alone.”

— Linkin Park

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Giving Up Quotes, Depression Quotes, Pain Quotes, Lonely Quotes

21. “No one knows my Struggle, they only see the Trouble. Not knowing it’s hard to carry on when, No one loves you.”

— Tupac Shakur

Also featured in: Struggle Quotes, Love You Quotes, Depression Quotes, Pain Quotes

22. “Hope begins in the dark.”

— Anne Lamott

Also featured in: Quotes About Hope

23. “I will hurt you for this. I don’t know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid.”

— George R.R. Martin

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Hurt Quotes

24. “However dark the night, however dim our hopes, the light will always follow darkness.”

— Louis Zamperini

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Quotes About Hope, Keep Your Head Up Quotes

25. “It doesn’t matter if a cave has been in darkness for 10,000 years or half an hour, once you light a match it is illuminated.”

— Paramahansa Yogananda

Also featured in: Quotes About Light

26. “Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Also featured in: Depressing Quotes, Loss Quotes, Fight Club Quotes

27. “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.”

— Christine Caine

Also featured in: Positive Quotes for Women, Stay Strong Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Tuesday Morning Quotes

28. “In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Also featured in: Depressing Quotes, Suffering Quotes

29. “I do not believe this darkness will endure.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Also featured in: Resilience Quotes

30. “Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.”

— Werner Herzog

Also featured in: Quotes About Civilization, Quotes About Ocean

31. “Life’s hard, then you die.”

— Woody Allen

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Sad Quotes, Sarcastic Quotes, Suffering Quotes

32. “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”

— Anne Frank

33. “People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Also featured in: Human Nature Quotes, Depressing Quotes, Suffering Quotes

34. “I found the evil in myself a long time ago, and I’ve accepted it. We’re old friends.”

— Johnny Depp

35. “If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.”

— Haruki Murakami

36. “Some kids are so depressed at home and with how people treat them in school that they cut themselves. This happens all over the world – kids who don’t want to kill themselves, but nobody understands how much they hurt, so they cut themselves with razor blades.”

— Chester Bennington

Also featured in: Mental Health Quotes, Sorrow Quotes, Depression Quotes, Hurt Quotes, Emo Quotes

37. “No one is going to come help you. No one’s coming to save you.”

— David Goggins

Also featured in: Warrior Quotes, Impossible Quotes, Truth Quotes, Quitting Quotes, Hurt Quotes

38. “There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Existentialism Quotes

39. “Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.”

— William Blake

Also featured in: Quotes About Night

40. “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”

— Joseph Campbell

Also featured in: Journey Quotes, Encouraging Quotes