Scythrop did not despair. ‘Seven copies,’ he thought, ‘have been sold. Seven is a mystical number, and the omen is good. Let me find the seven purchasers of my seven copies, and they shall be the seven golden candle-sticks with which I will illuminate the world.’

Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey [Amazon, Bookshop, Local Library, Internet Archive]

Hermetic quote Peacock Nightmare Abbey despair seven copies sold mystical number omen good find purchasers golden candlesticks illuminate world

Consider also:

  1. “the moment he decided to give it a look”
  2. “rules were against rights and rights against rules, and a ghost in the fire was a ghost in the street, and the thing that had been was the thing that was to be and it was coming, was coming; what was coming; what but herself?”
  3. Sitting around all night in a dark apartment with the TV and computer screens providing all the ambient light is bound to affect your perception after a while.
  4. In every dictatorship which is tottering, there is an urge towards destruction. Of self, if that only is possible. Of the world, if that is.
  5. “He slept with Horrid Mysteries under his pillow, and dreamed of venerable eleutherarchs and ghastly confederates holding midnight conventions in subterranean caves.”