I have been one acquainted with the night

*Robert Frost: Acquainted With the Night

see: Evil Me Scares Me and What the Hell, Hero?

Nietzsche:
"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster.  And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

The Lord of the Rings:
"'What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'  'Pity?  It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need...Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so.  With Pity.'"

"'Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.'  'I wish it need not have happened in my time'  'So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.'"

"you begin to realize in your heart that there is no going back.  There are some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold"

"'He deserves death!'  'Deserves it! I dare say he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all the ends....'"

Harry Potter:
"'This connection between me and Voldemort… what if the reason for it is that I am becoming more like him? I just feel so angry, all the time. What if after everything that I’ve been through, something’s gone wrong inside me? What if I’m becoming bad?'
'I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry. You’re not a bad person. You’re a very good person, who bad things have happened to. Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.'"

Nice Awesome Anachronistic Apparel, Sirius.

Doctor Who:
"'What did you come here for, anyway?'  'I love old things.  They make me feel sad.'  'What's good about sad?'  'It's happy for deep people.'"

"'One little girl crying. So?'  'Crying silently. I mean, children cry cos they want attention, cos they're hurt or afraid. When they cry silently, it's cos they just can't stop. Any parent knows that.  Hundreds of parents walking past this spot and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means...they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows - whatever they're afraid of - it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere.'"

"'You’ve seen it out there. It’s beautiful.'  'And it’s terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying and you stood there like… I don’t know, a stranger. ...I mean, you scare me to death!'"

Classic "Evil Me Scares Me"

If you missed the optimism in this post, read the Potter quote again.  There is no absolute evil, the world is not death eaters (or orcs) and good people.  There are just people, and then there are choices.  Battle with monsters, and you may simply come out kinder (see the Star Whale, "Candle in the Dark" post).  "Wounds that run too deep, that will never heal"?  See: life is a pile of good and bad things, also in the "Candle in the Dark" post.  Want to run away?  Have at it, it can help if you need to lick your wounds.  See: "Guess it's time I run/ far, far away/ find comfort in pain".  Then see: Do you realize?.  Be sad when you are sad.  Be angry when you are angry.  And be happy when you are happy.

Imma stop my awful preachin' now.  Were I a preacher, I would totally be fired.  And not just because of the belief in God bit. (so snarky!)  Basically, I think people shouldn't obsess over "Evil Me Scares Me", because society is silly when it says "be happy all the time or something is wrong with you".