I’ve got to recommend that one. It’s a very famous quote, so I was stunned that in the context of the poem, it actually retains its shock value. It really works.
Doc Cathode is right about the Hanson lyrics, I could see it the first time. Probably a lot of those “I’ll never leave you” type songs can be read to have that creepy side, but that one works well.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm:
and, from the 1961 Roger Corman / Vincent Price movie of Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum:
[SPOILER]Much of the plot of the movie revolves around the fear of someone being buried alive. After the hero has been rescued from the title Pit with its horrifying Pendulum, the heroine says the quoted line to the hero as they leave the Pit and its gruesome machines of torture. They are unaware that the evil Elizabeth, who is responsible for most of the bad stuff that happens in the movie, has become trapped in an Iron Maiden in the torture chamber.
The final shot shows Elizabeth’s reaction to the quoted line, as she realizes that she is about to be walled up alive, with no hope of rescue since everyone else thinks that she died some time before. Poetic justice at its finest![/SPOILER]
The original Poe short story has none of this side-plot, IIRC, and the 1961 movie is much the better for fleshing it out, IMHO.
In the midst of the war, He offered us peace,
And he came like a lover, From out of the east,
With the face of an angel and the heart of a beast,
His intentions were six-sixty-six.
He walked up to the temple, With gold in his hands,
And he bought off the priests and propositioned the land,
And the world was his harlot, and laid in the sand,
While the band played six-sixty-six
We served at his table, and we slept on the floor,
But he starved us and beat us, and nailed us to the door
Well, I’m ready to die, I can’t take any more
And I’m sick of his lies and his tricks
He told us he loved us, But that was a lie,
There was blood in his pockets
And death in his eyes
Well, my number is up, And I’m willing to die
If the band will play six-sixty-six
:eek: :eek: :eek:
“That’s my lastduchess painted on the wall
Looking as if she were alive…”
–Robert Browning
Even though I know the poem’s actually about a portrait, the opening lines always give me the creeps.
And I can’t believe no one’s posted this one yet: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” – John Donne.
“Forth, Eorlingas!” --some guy on a horse. 
I thought it was “Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
From here:
You seem to have the right king, but the wrong speaker. I’ve also encountered the “moi” version, but the “nous” seems to be more common.
The quote is so chilling because it’s so light-hearted; the speaker is saying, in effect, “because of the way we live things are going to go to hell after we’re gone, and I don’t care.”
Pvt Joker: How can you shoot women and children?
Helicopter Door Gunner: Easy. You don’t lead them so much.
from Full Metal Jacket
You may be right. It’s been awhile since I last read it…
Got another one for y’all, by Ogden Nash:
“And silent as stone he rode down alone
From the floor of the double-damned.”
If you’ve never read “A Tale of the Thirteenth Floor,” you may be surprised. Ogden Nash wasn’t all cute little couplets about termites and such.
About a century later, a new Carthage was built on the site, but of course it was a Roman city, with little continuity to the previous population.
Marlitharn:
…the implication in the poem is that he murdered his ‘last’ duchess!
Good quotes!
That’s what I’ve been saying about Clay Aiken’s “Invincible” since I first heard it:
“If I was invisible
Then I could just watch you in your room
If I was invincible
I’d make you mine tonight”
<shudder>
Here’s two goodies from David Lynch. This exchange from Lost Highway:
Mystery Man : We’ve met before, haven’t we.
Fred Madison : I don’t think so. Where was it you think we met?
Mystery Man : At your house. Don’t you remember?
Fred Madison : No. No, I don’t. Are you sure?
Mystery Man : Of course. As a matter of fact, I’m there right now.
Fred Madison : What do you mean? You’re where right now?
Mystery Man : At your house.
Fred Madison : That’s fucking crazy, man.
Mystery Man : Call me. Dial your number. Go ahead.
[Fred dials the number and the Mystery Man answers]
Mystery Man : [over the phone] I told you I was here.
Fred Madison : [amused] How’d you do that?
Mystery Man : Ask me.
[Fred remembers the anonymous video tapes]
Fred Madison : [angrily into the phone] How did you get inside my house?
Mystery Man : You invited me. It is not my custom to go where I am not wanted.
Fred Madison : [into the phone] Who are you?
[Both Mystery Men laugh mechanically]
Mystery Man : Give me back my phone.
[Fred gives the phone back]
Mystery Man : It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
and from Mullholland Dive
Now, you will see me one more time if you do good. You’ll see me two more times if you do bad. Goodnight.
This is along similar lines of the Jack the Ripper quote already mentioned above. Albert Fish, another cannibalistic serial killer, wrote a letter to the mother of one of his victims, ten-year-old Grace Budd. Here is a portion of the letter, in which Fish details what he’s done with her body. I think it’s one of the most horrific things I’ve ever read.
i was worried for a minute there that someone had beat me to it, but no…
again, from The Cask of Amontillado:
*Nemo me impune lacessit *
i think for shear cold deadliness, that pretty much says it all.
Possibly because of context, but the line from Barton Fink always chills me:
“I’ll show you the life of the mind!”
Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws: The thing about a shark, it’s got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. When it comes at you it doesn’t seem to be livin’… until he bites you, and those black eyes roll over white.
The old man walked to the sliprail, and peered up the dark’ning track,
And looked and longed for the rider that would never more come back
“Lost” by A. B. “Banjo” Paterson
Okay…forgive me in advance for quoting from The Attack of the Clones, but this one still creeps me out…maybe the one line he delivered well:
“I killed them. All of them.” *Moving closer… * “And not just the men.” Closer… “The women. And the children. I slaughtered them like animals.”
Creepy.
That whole speech, about the USS Indianapolis, is chilling.
Or the end of the scene in Treasure Island, by R. L. Stevenson, where Long John Silver has failed to frighten the loyalists into surrender:
Regards,
Shodan
I hate that I have to say this because I’d think it would be obvious, but… Not everyone on the boards is fluent in Latin/French/German/whatever. If you’re posting a quote in another language, please give an English translation. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t want to have to Google every other quote posted.
Now, for my quote, lame though it may be (and longer than I remembered):
"Here are some people who have written books, telling what they did and why they did those things:
John Dean. Henry Kissinger. Adolph Hitler. Caryl Chessman. Jeb Magruder. Napoleon. Talleyrand. Disraeli. Robert Zimmerman, also known as Bob Dylan. Locke. Charlton Heston. Errol Flynn. The Ayatollah Khomeini. Gandhi. Charles Olson. Charles Colson. A Victorian Gentleman. Dr. X.
Most people also believe that God has written a Book, or Books, telling what He did and why—at least to a degree—He did those things, and since most of those people also believe that humans were made in the image of God, then He may also be regarded as a person . . . or, more properly, as a Person.
Here are some people who have not written books, telling what they did . . . and what they saw:
The man who buried Hitler. The man who performed the autopsy on John Wilkes Booth. The man who embalmed Elvis Presley. The man who embalmed—badly, most undertakers say—Pope John XXIII. The twoscore undertakers who cleaned up Jonestown, carrying body bags, spearing paper cups with those spikes custodians carry in city parks, waving away the flies. The man who cremated Willam Holden. The man who encased the body of Alexander the Great in gold so it would not rot. The men who mummified the Pharaohs.
Death is a mystery, and burial is a secret."
—Stephen King, Pet Sematary