Infestation Quotes

“Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.

[In a letter to Frederick the Great]”
― Voltaire

“The one plus side to demonic infestation is that children cannot be harmed by a demon. The sanctified aura of a child somehow repels the demon and they can only oppress them if the parent makes a contract allowing them to do so. Because they can be very clever in tricking people into agreeing to additional contracts, it is important to never converse with a demon. Either call in a priest or move out as soon as possible.”
― Alexei Maxim Russell, The New Homeowner's Guide to House Spirits

“RATS. In sewers. In religions. In words like pirate, desperate, and narrative. Rats infest this glossary as surely as words and mushrooms.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, City of Saints and Madmen

“Bravery is about overcoming fear, not about not having it.”
― Garth Nix, To Hold the Bridge

“Bravery is about overcoming fear, not about not having it. There's plenty I'm afraid of. Just not vampires.'

'We fear the unknown,' she said. 'You must know a lot about vampires.”
― Garth Nix, To Hold the Bridge

“Are you here about the infestation?"
MacMillian stiffened. "I don't... We aren't-"
Lena cleared her throat. "I'm afraid bugs aren't really our specialty."
"Not bugs." The woman shook her head vigorously. "Ghosts. Whole place is crawling with 'em.”
― Laura Oliva, A World Apart

“It didn’t seem like they were here to find food. Nor did they have the patience to bite anyone. Left to themselves, they’d quickly haul to particles of mud and built nests here and there in the house. You could try scuttling them with a broom, but they’d get into a mad frenzy and climb up the broom and on to your arm. Before you knew it, they’d be all over you, even under your clothes. For days on end there would be a terrific invasion, and then one day you would wake up to find them gone. There was no telling why they came, where they went. I sometimes saw them racing in lines along the window sills in the front room, where there was nothing to eat. Perhaps they were on a mission of some sort, only passing through our house in self-important columns. But not once did I see the trail of a column, an ant that had no other ants behind it.”
― Vivek Shanbhag, Ghachar Ghochar

“The caterpillars are coming. They’re coming. As they passed a blunt rolled with marijuana shake around the bonfire, filled plastic cups with beer from a keg in the back of John Anderson’s Bronco, snuck cigarettes at the red doors that led to the make-out woods behind school. As they waited on line at the cafeteria for pizza and Tater Tots, warmed up during choral practice, and changed for gym in the locker room. Until Maddie felt something titanic rushing toward the island, gathering steam like a nor’easter barreling toward shore, and the waiting filled with a tingling urgency she knew they all felt. She felt it. Car engines revved harder, highs soared higher, buzzes and crushes burned brighter. “Look.” She lifted her palm as the insect inched across. The two lines of blue and red dots on its back glimmered like spots of blood rising after a pinprick. “They’re here.”
― Julia Fierro, The Gypsy Moth Summer