The one test of the really weird (story) is simply this--whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.
There are unknown forces in nature; when we give ourselves wholly to her, without reserve, she lends them to us; she shows us these forms, which our watching eyes do not see, which our intelligence does not understand or suspect.
The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.
We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.
When I use the word 'Satan,' it doesn't stand for a guy with horns. To me, that word means the powers of the unknown, the powers of darkness.
Imagine if it happened to you: All of a sudden you find this thing on your wrist and people are telling you it has powers. I would be a little skeptical myself.
I welcome the powers of the unknown.
With hidden powers of unknown extent apparently at his disposal, Curwen was not a man who could safely be warned to leave town.
