75 Halloween quotes that are sure to send chills down your spine

Halloween brings the fun and frights.

Between the homemade costumes, decorations and horror movies, you’re bound to be scared silly on October 31 — and, if you’re (un)lucky, all the days leading up to it.

But if you need a little nudge to help you get in the Halloween headspace before the festivities begin, then turn to famous movies, songs and books for inspiration.

Below, find an assortment of short Halloween quotes that embrace the spooks, sweets and scares of the season. The funny quotes will break up the screams with some laughs, while the creepy ones will make you — and everyone else, for that matter — shudder with fear.

Whatever you do, don’t keep these quotes to yourself. Rattle off a few while you’re out trick-or-treating, jot them down in a greeting card or use them as Instagram captions.

Some thought-starters: Post a quote from “Hocus Pocus” (your favorite witch movie, obviously) if you and your best friends are dressing as the Sanderson sisters. Or pair a creepy quote with your cute haunted hayride photo for the sake of balance.

No matter what’s in store for you this Halloween, these quotes are sure to get you in the holiday mindset.

be careful in the company of the monsters that you don’t become one – cindy gerard from ‘take no prisoners’ (TODAY Illustration)

• “It’s as much fun to scare as to be scared.” — Vincent Prince
• “Evil has only the power that we give it.” — Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
• “I am the pumpkin king.” — Poor Jack, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
• “Last night you were unhinged. You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me. Do it again.” — Morticia, “The Addams Family”
• “Every day is Halloween, isn’t it? For some of us.” — Tim Burton
• “She’d always loved Halloween. A magic night. A night when anything could happen. Monsters could be real. Magic could whisper in the air.” — Cynthia Eden
• “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” — Stephen King
• “Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve.” — Ray Bradbury, “The Halloween Tree”
• “It’s Halloween! It’s Halloween! The moon is full and bright and we shall see that can’t be seen on any other night.” — Jack Prelutsky, “It’s Halloween”
• “If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!” — Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein”
• “Flip the switch and let the cauldron bubble!” — Aunt Frances Owens, “Practical Magic”
• “Oh how the candles will be lit and the wood of worm burn in a fiery dust. For on all Hallows’ Eve will the spirits come to play.” — Solange nicole
• “Most people will tell you growing up means you stop believing in Halloween things — I’m telling you the reverse. You start to grow up when you understand that the stuff that scares you is part of the air you breathe.” — Peter Straub, “Magic Terror: 7 Tales”

in masks and gowns we haunt the street and knock on doors for trick or treat – jack from it’s halloween (TODAY Illustration)

• “It’s that special time of year where we voluntarily imbibe pumpkin-spiced lattes: the coffee that tastes like a candle.” — John Oliver
• “I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and the blackest eyes — the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up.” — Samuel Loomis, “Halloween”
• “There are three things that I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.” — Linus, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
• “They cannot be seen because they creep only in the dark.” — H.P. Lovecraft, “The H.P. Lovecraft Collection”
• “On Hallowe’en they all jump off the roof and fly!” — Ice Cream Boy, “Practical Magic”
• “They thought of All Hallows’ Night and the billion ghosts awandering the lonely lanes in cold winds and strange smokes.” — Ray Bradbury, “The Halloween Tree”
• “In masks and gowns we haunt the street and knock on doors for trick or treat.” — Jack Prelutsky, “It’s Halloween”
• “This is my costume. I’m a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else.” — Wednesday Addams, “The Addams Family”
• “I might play with my cat and then go trick people to death.” — Scott Holstad, “Shadows Before the Maiming”
• “Catching and holding the attention of an eight-year-old on Halloween is like trying to catch a hummingbird with a piece of dental floss. It’s theoretically possible, but not very likely.” — Abbi Waxman, “Adult Assembly Required”
• “Pumpkins in October, as fat as the full moon, they sit on our doorstep at night and glow.” — Richelle Goodrich, “Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year”
• “Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.” — H.P. Lovecraft, “The Short Stories of H.P. Lovecraft”  
• “I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.” -Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

there’s only 365 days left until Halloween – mayor from the nightmare before christmas (TODAY Illustration)

• “You ever feel prickly things on the back of your neck?”— Cole Sear, “The Sixth Sense”
• “A witch never gets caught. Don’t forget that she has magic in her fingers and devilry dancing in her blood.” — Roald Dahl, “The Witches”
• “There’s a little witch in all of us.” — Alice Hoffman, “Practical Magic”
• “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.” — William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”
• “There is something haunting in the light of the moon.” — Joseph Conrad
• “When I sleep my spirit slips away from my body and dances naked with the devil.” — Thomasin, “The Witch”
• “It’s Halloween. Everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” — Sheriff Leigh Brackett, “Halloween”
• “There’s only 365 days left until next Halloween!” — Mayor, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
• “I know of witches who whistle at different pitches, calling things that don’t have names.” — Helen Oyeyemi, “White is for Witching”
• “Beware the dark pool at the bottom of our hearts. In its icy, black depths dwell strange and twisted creatures it is best not to disturb.” — Sue Grafton, “‘I’ is for Innocent”
• “We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.” — H.P. Lovecraft, “The Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft”
• “Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.” — John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men”
• “At night the fog was thick and full of light, and sometimes voices.” — Erin Bow, “Plain Kate”

there’s a little witch in all of us – aunt jet owens in practical magic (TODAY Illustration)

• “Imagination be a witch tonight.” — Robert Bagg, “Hallowe’en”
• “Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living.” — Thomas Browne, “Garden of Cyrus”
• “Vampires, werewolves, fallen angels and fairies lurk in the shadows, their intentions far from honorable.” — Jeaniene Frost
• “Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world.” — William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
• “Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, voices whisper in the trees, ‘Tonight is Halloween!’” — Dexter Kozen
• “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” — H.P. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”
• “Suddenly the day was gone, night came out from under each tree and spread.” — Ray Bradbury, “The Halloween Tree”
• “Tis the night — the night of the grave’s delight.” — Arthur Cleveland Coxe
• “Be careful in the company of monsters that you don’t become one.” — Cindy Gerard, “Take No Prisoners”
• “Fear has many eyes, and can see things underground.” — Miguel de Cervantes, “The Adventures of Don Quixote”
• “Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand.” — Vincent Price, “Thriller”

it’s halloween, everyone’s entitled to a good scare – sheriff leigh brackett from halloween (TODAY Illustration)

• What’s the good of being a ghost if you can’t frighten people away?” — Barbara, “Beetlejuice”
• “Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.” — Aristotle
•  “Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.” — Walt Whitman
•  “We are the things that others fear.” — Anne Rice, “The Vampire Lestat”
• “A deep sleep fell upon me — a sleep like that of death.” — Edgar Allan Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”
•  “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.” — William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”
• “He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.” — Stephen King, “It”
• “The ghouls all came from their humble abodes, to get a jolt from my electrodes.” — Robert Pickett, “Monster Mash”
• “You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop: The Twilight Zone.” — Rod Serling, “The Twilight Zone”
• “There are no heroes … in life, the monsters win.” — George R. R. Martin
• “The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.” — Garrett Fort
•  “I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.” -Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray
• “Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.” — Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”

evil only has the power that we give it – ray bradbury from something wicked this way comes (TODAY Illustration)

•  “So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” — T.S. Eliot
• “That’s what you dream about? Being a monster?” — Edward Cullen, “Twilight”
•  “I be the witch of the wood.” — Thomasin, “The Witch”
• “The jack-o’-lantern follows me with tapered, glowing eyes. His yellow teeth grin evily. His cackle I despise.” — Richelle Goodrich, “Slaying Dragons”
• “Candle, spoon and carving knife: nearing the vigil of the dead, let’s impose a little life upon a ripening, faceless head.” — Robert B. Shaw, “Jack O’ Lantern”
• “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost.” — Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
• “Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world.” — Linus, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
•  “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts, “A Shadow Passes”
• “I put a spell on you and now you’re mine.” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, “I Put a Spell on You”
• “One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the damn vampires.” — Grandpa, “The Lost Boys”
• “Sisters, All Hallows’ Eve has become a night of frolic, where children wear costumes and run amok!” — Winifred Sanderson, “Hocus Pocus”
• “Spooky, scary skeletons, send shivers down your spine, shrieking skulls will shock your soul, seal your doom tonight.” — Andrew Gold, “Spooky, Scary Skeletons”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com