'Dracula' Quotes

Quotations from the Vampire Classic by Bram Stoker

"Dracula - A Nightmare Of Horror!" 16" x 16" Acrylic on stretched canvas

DK (Deborah) Stone popartdks / Flcikr CC

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a classic vampire tale. First published in 1897, the novel was influenced by a history of vampire myths and stories, but Stoker shaped all those fragmented tales to create a literary legend (that was just the start of what we know and understand about vampires in current literature). Even though stories like Polidori's "The Vampire" and Le Fanu's Carmilla already existed at the time when Dracula was first published, Stoker's novel—and his literary imagination—helped to spawn a new dimension in horror literature. Here are a few quotes from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Quotes From 'Dracula'

  • "I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 1, Dracula

Journal Style

The novel is written in the style of a journal, written by Jonathan Harker. Already, the author is playing upon preconceptions and superstitions, and leading us to expect something "interesting," although what that might mean is not immediately clear. How does superstition figure into our perception (and fear) of vampires?

  • "Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner?"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 2, Dracula

Harker as Everyman

Jonathan Harker is an everyman, a simple clerk who goes out to do a job and finds himself in the midst of a very unexpected experience—foreign to his understanding. He's a "stranger in a strange land."

  • "As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me... a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 2, Dracula
  • "When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demonaic fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 2, Dracula
  • "The fair girl went on her knees and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal... I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super-sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 3, Dracula
  • "I bent over him, and tried to find any sign of life, but in vain."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 4, Dracula
  • "But, oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 5, Dracula
  • "Oh Lucy, I cannot be angry with you, nor can I be angry with my friend whose happiness is yours; but I must only wait on hopeless and work. Work! work!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 6, Dracula
  • "The man was simply fastened by his hands, tied one over the other, to a spoke of the wheel. Between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 7, Dracula
  • "a man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale... I crept behind It, and gave It my knife; but the knife went through It, empty as the air."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 7, Dracula
  • "there, on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white... something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 8, Dracula
  • "Between me and the moonlight flitted a great bat, coming and going in great, whirling circles."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 8, Dracula
  • "I don't want to talk to you: you don't count now; the Master is at hand."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 8, Dracula
  • "I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave..."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 8, Dracula
  • it will be for her sake, and I must not hesitate to ask, or you to act."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 9, Dracula
  • "All over! all over! He has deserted me."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 9, Dracula
  • "The whole bed would have been drenched to a scarlet with the blood the girl must have lost..."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 10, Dracula
  • "No man knows till he experiences it, what it is like to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the woman he loves."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 10, Dracula
  • "The blood is the life!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 11, Dracula
  • "If that were all, I would stop here where we are now, and let her fade away into peace..."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 12, Dracula
  • "Not so! Alas! Not so. It is only the beginning!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 12, Dracula
  • "He was very pale, and his eyes seemed bulging out as, half in terror and half in amazement, he gazed at a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard..."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 13, Dracula
  • "Mein Gott! Mein Gott! So soon! So soon!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 14, Dracula
  • "They were made by Miss Lucy!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 14, Dracula
  • "In trance she died, and in trance she is Un-Dead, too... There is no malign there, see, and so it make it hard that I must kill her in her sleep."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 15, Dracula
  • "I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 15, Dracula
  • "The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 16, Dracula

Study Guide

Further Quotes

Here are a few more quotations from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

  • "You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to convince you to-night."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 18, Dracula
  • "With his left hand he held both Mrs Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare breast, which was shown by his torn open dress."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 21, Dracula
  • "As he placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it - had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white hot metal."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 22, Dracula
  • "My revenge has just begun! I spread it over centuries and time is on my side."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 23, Dracula
  • "you are but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded - since once he put that mark upon your throat."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 23, Dracula
  • "I on my part give up the uncertainty of eternal rest and go out into the dark where may be the blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 25, Dracula
  • "As I looked, the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them [the gypsies] turned to triumph. But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same moment Mr Morris's bowie knife plunged in the heart."
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 27, Dracula
  • "Now God be thanked that all has not been in vain! See! the snow is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away!"
    - Bram Stoker, Chapter 27, Dracula

Study Guide

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Lombardi, Esther. "'Dracula' Quotes." ThoughtCo, Mar. 10, 2021, thoughtco.com/bram-stoker-dracula-quotes-739545. Lombardi, Esther. (2021, March 10). 'Dracula' Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/bram-stoker-dracula-quotes-739545 Lombardi, Esther. "'Dracula' Quotes." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/bram-stoker-dracula-quotes-739545 (accessed March 28, 2024).