Goths Quotes

“Later times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Vandals, but, however unwilling the partizans of the Christian system may be to believe or to acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true, that the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.There was more knowledge in the world before that period, than for many centuries afterwards; and as to religious knowledge, the Christian system, as already said, was only another species of mythology; and the mythology to which it succeeded, was a corruption of an ancient system of theism.

It is owing to this long interregnum of science, and to no other cause, that we have now to look back through a vast chasm of many hundred years to the respectable characters we call the Ancients. Had the progression of knowledge gone on proportionably with the stock that before existed, that chasm would have been filled up with characters rising superior in knowledge to each other; and those Ancients we now so much admire would have appeared respectably in the background of the scene. But the christian system laid all waste; and if we take our stand about the beginning of the sixteenth century, we look back through that long chasm, to the times of the Ancients, as over a vast sandy desert, in which not a shrub appears to intercept the vision to the fertile hills beyond.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“And when the clouds do clear away
Get a momentary chance to see
The thing I've been trying to beat to death
The soft creature that I used to be
The better animal I used to be”
― John Darnielle

“No, mother; no. She was really keen on Italy. This travel is quite a crisis for her.” He found the situation full of whimsical romance: there was something half attractive, half repellent in the thought of this vulgar woman journeying to places he loved and revered. Why should she not be transfigured? The same had happened to the Goths.”
― E.M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread

“There's really nothing sadder than goth kids in a warm-weather climate.”
― David Crabb, Bad Kid: A Memoir

“The historian Cassiodorus believed that the selective destruction of Alaric, as regards the Greek monuments, was of good effect. Alaric had some taste and was awed by really great art. The Greeks were only human, and all their work could not have been excellent. But almost all their ancient work that survived the ravages of Alaric was of unsurpassed excellence.
There is abominable and worthless ancient Greek art in Asia Minor, in Constantinople, in Thebes, in Eritrea, in the Cyclades and other islands. There is little or none of this worthless ancient art surviving in the path of the Gothic Greek adventure; not in Athens, or Megara or Corinth or Argos. Sparta does not figure in the account at all; it never had art.
It is said that Alaric destroyed half of the art of Greece. It may have been the worst half. He was a critic of unusual effectiveness.”
― R.A. Lafferty, The Fall of Rome

“There are three known planets in the PSR B1257 system, which have been named Draugr, Poltergeist and Phobetor. Poltergeist was the first to be discovered. I know, I was curious about their names as well. Poletrgeist means "pounding ghost". The draugr are the unded in Norse legends who live in their graves. And Phobetor is the personification of nightmares, and the son of Nyx, Greek goddess of the night.
Astronomers are goths.”
― Brian Cox, Forces of Nature

“Olympius, in the name of the Emperor Honorius, ordered the forces in Bologna to take the field against Alaric, on peril of the death of their families. The generals sent word that they could not find the forces of Alaric. The scouts from Bologna silently saluted the Goths of Alaric as they went by, but they could not find them.”
― R.A. Lafferty, The Fall of Rome

“Here we come to a semantic difficulty. Other peoples who were of considerable civilization had been referred to as barbarians for more than a thousand years. Others had been called by the names of the wolves. When the wolves themselves came, there was no other name to give them. The Goths, who were kingdom-founding Christians, had been called barbarians. The Gauls of ancient lineage had been so called, and the talented Vandals.
Even the Huns had been called barbarians. This is a thing beyond all comprehension, and yet it is not safe to contradict the idea even today. The Huns were a race of over-civilized kings traveling with their Courts. In the ordering of military affairs and in overall organization they had no superiors in the world. They were skilled diplomats, filled with urbanity and understanding. All who came into contact with them, Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Romans, were impressed by the Huns' fairness in dealing—considering that they were armed invaders; by their restraint and adaptability; by their judgment of affairs; by their easy luxury. They brought a new elegance to the Empire peoples; and they had assimilated a half dozen cultures, including that of China. But the Huns were not barbarians; no more were any of the other violent visitors to the Empire heretofore.”
― R.A. Lafferty, The Fall of Rome

“The Goths had trained bears and possibly, from one garbled account, trained seals.
The dance is something with no survival, lacking verbal or pictorial record. The Goths may have had it. If they painted, it was not in a medium or on a material that has survived. Their history was unwritten. Their scientific speculation may not have gone beyond mead-table discussions and arguments. There is no record of their early philosophy. Since they were Germans, they must have constructed philosophical systems; and also, since they were Germans, these would have been erroneous.”
― R.A. Lafferty, The Fall of Rome

“Alaric now at this moment of supreme crisis, coming down to the rough shore and seeing the howling waves, raised his hand to heaven and called out that the Gulf of Corinth should freeze!
It froze!
And the Goths, shattering the last scrim of Roman interceptors, abandoned their horses and crossed the ice on foot!”
― R.A. Lafferty, The Fall of Rome

“If you're stuck with being dumpy then for me at least, the way to go is dumpy Goth. I can't abide skinny Goths. Never mind the undead, pale and interesting look I say. In my opinion, they should drink more blood, fill out a bit and enjoy life!”
― Jo Brodie

“In that huge game of musical chairs, I turned round one day and found I had no place to sit. At a loss, I became a Goth—it was where people who had nowhere else to go ended up.”
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time

“I never liked Queen. I can honestly say I hated Queen and everything that they did.”
― Robert Smith

“Oh mall... at least you're always here for me”
― Kate Leth, Mall Goth

“Goth supports the feminine in both women and men.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Your value has and always will lie in the courage of your being.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“This is an artistic approach to living life.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“The Victorian goth is a genteel character, morning that environment which nurtured sensitivity and venerated consideration.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Goths choose to live with paradox, and taking your look seriously while laughing at yourself is just one of the many dualities they manage to balance.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Goths are nothing if not creative dressers.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Goth looks can range from lingering death to finally dead to eternally undead, but black is the one constant, the color of choice.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Black is the night, that time when all night be as it is in daylight but the lack of light ensures mystery-what goths crave.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Those who long to be hidden can hide.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Queen Victoria is our role model for mourning, thank you. After all, she did manage to mourn her dead husband for forty years. Quite a feat.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Gregorian chants have floated down the corridors of time to land gently in the velvet-covered lap of goth.”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined

“Woe to the goth who does not partake of the Internet! For he/she shall be relegated to the humdrum of real time with all its imperfections!”
― Nancy Kilpatrick, The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined