Halloween, Hallowe’en, or All Hallow’s Evening is speculated to have originated by the Celtic Samhain and pagans over 2,000 years ago on October 31. In celebration of the eve of the Western Christian’s feast of All Hallows, western Europeans honored the end of the harvest season and the dead with bonfires and costumes to ward off ghosts and evil spirits. When Pope Gregory III declared November 1 was the day to honor saints and martyrs with All Saints’ Day around 1,000 A.D., he included many of the traditions of the Samhain. Eventually with the passing of the years, the traditions of Halloween evolved to be the holiday it is today. With trick-or-treating, costumes, parties, pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, visits to haunted houses, pranks, treats, horror films, sweets, and scary stories, Halloween has grown into an internationally recognized family oriented and community based celebration. To honor the traditions of the most favorite holiday for witches, goblins, and ghosts, here are the 55 Best Halloween Quotes.
1. “Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.”
Mason Cooley
2. “Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
William Shakespeare
3. “Eat, drink, and be scary.”
Unknown
4. “As spirits roam the neighborhoods at night,
Let loose upon the Earth till it be light.”
Nicholas Gordon
5. “From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us.”
Scottish Proverb
6. “Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite,
All are on their rounds tonight;
In the wan moon’s silver ray,
Thrives their helter-skelter play.”
Joel Benton
7. “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
William Shakespeare
8. “Witch and ghost make merry on this last of dear October’s days.”
Unknown
9. “Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat.”
Nicholas Gordon
10. “Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the “spirits” of things.”
Dee Snider
11. “At first cock-crow the ghosts must go
Back to their quiet graves below.”
Theodosia Garrison
12. “Bring forth the raisins and the nuts - Tonight All-Hallow’s Specter struts Along the moonlit way.”
John Kendrick Bangs
13. “ ‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.”
William Shakespeare
14. “When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.”
Unknown
15. “I don’t know that there are real ghosts and goblins, but there are always more trick-or-treaters than neighborhood kids.”
Robert Brault
16. “Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
Steve Almond
17. “My candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open...”
Mary Shelley
18. “This Halloween the most popular mask is the Arnold Schwarzenegger mask. And the best part? With a mouth full of candy you will sound just like him.”
Conan O’Brien
19. “There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.”
Robert Brault
20. “ ‘Tis the night - the night
Of the grave’s delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it’s they - it is they.”
Arthur Cleveland Coxe
21. “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.”
J.K. Rowling
22. “Those seemingly interminable dark walls between houses, long before street-lit safety became an issue, were more adrenalizing than the mountains of candy filling the sack. Sadly Halloween, with our good-natured attempts to protect the little ones, from the increasingly dangerous traffic and increasingly sick adults, has become an utter bore.”
Lauren Springer
23. “Just like a ghost, you’ve been a-hauntin’ my dreams,
So I’ll propose on Halloween
Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you.”
Classics IV
24. “Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, ‘Tonight is Halloween!’”
Dexter Kozen
25. “Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to.”
Richard Harris Barham
26. “Men say that in this midnight hour,
The disembodied have power
To wander as it liketh them,
By wizard oak and fairy stream.”
William Motherwell
27. “Of calling shapes, and beck’ning shadows dire,
And airy tongues that syllable men’s names.”
John Milton
28. “Auld Daddy Darkness creeps frae his hole,
Black as a blackamoor, blin’ as a mole...”
James Ferguson
29. “They that are born on Halloween shall see more than other folk.”
Unknown
30. “Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!”
Elizabeth Akers Allen
31. “On Halloween, witches come true;
Wild ghosts escape from dreams.
Each monster dances in the park.”
Nicholas Gordon
32. “You wouldn’t believe
On All Hallow Eve
What lots of fun we can make,
With apples to bob,
And nuts on the hob,
And a ring-and-thimble cake.”
Carolyn Wells
33. “May Jack-o-lanterns burning bright
Of soft and golden hue
Pierce through the future’s veil and show
What fate now holds for you.”
Unknown
34. “On Hallowe’en the thing you must do
Is pretend that nothing can frighten you
And if somethin’ scares you and you want to run
Just let on like it’s Hallowe’en fun.”
Unknown
35. “When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.”
Unknown
36. “There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.”
Colette
37. “Proof of our society’s decline is that Halloween has become a broad daylight event for many.”
Robert Kirby
38. “Hobgoblins know the proper way to dance:
Arms akimbo, loopy legs askew,
Leaping into darkness with delight,
Lusting for the ecstasy of fright,
Open to the charm of horrors new...”
Nicholas Gordon
39. “Hark! Hark to the wind! ‘Tis the night, they say,
When all souls come back from the far away -
The dead, forgotten this many a day.”
Virna Sheard
40. “A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the windows, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.”
J.M. Barrie
41. “Nothing beats a haunted moonlit night on All Hallows eve...And on this fatal night, at this witching time, the starless sky laments black and unmoving. The somber hues of an ominous, dark forest are suddenly illuminated under the emerging face of the full moon.”
Kim Elizabeth
42. ‘Stir the fire till it lowe
How like a queen comes forth the lonely Moon
from the slow opening curtains of the clouds
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne!”
George Croly
43. “A gypsy fire is on the hearth,
Sign of the carnival of mirth;
through the dun fields and from the glade
Flash merry folk in masquerade,
For this is Hallowe’en!”
Unknown
44. “There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all of the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.”
Joseph Conrad
45. “Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on.”
River Phoenix
46. “One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.”
Emily Dickinson
47. “Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”
Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.
48. “Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat.’ ‘No thank you.’ “
49. “There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.”
Jean Baudrillard
50. “On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me.”
Rodney Dangerfield
51. “Look, there’s no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.”
Fernando Pessoa
52. “The witches fly,
Across the sky,
The owls go, ‘Who? Who? Who?’
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl,
‘Scary Halloween to you!”
Nina Willis Walter
53. “I see my face in the mirror and go, ‘I’m a Halloween costume? That’s what they think of me?”
Drew Carey
54. “A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.”
Erma Bombeck
55. “There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”
George Carlin
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