Door

Doors are parts of structures which may be opened or closed in order to control and restrict access. A door may also metaphorically refer to portals and other non-physical entrances. In literature, doors often represent choices or outcomes which the principle actors can directly engage with.

It's a door, Sol. It's a door. ~ Darren Aronofsky, in π

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. ~ William Blake

Quotes

Alphabetized by author or source

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ~ Jesus

Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. ~ H. P. Lovecraft

• God never shuts one door without opening another.
  • Anonymous Irish proverb, quoted in The Search for God (1983) by David Manning White, p. 160

• The door was the way to... to... The Door was The Way. Good. Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
  • Douglas Adams, in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

• "Sir Isaac Newton, renowned inventor of the milled-edge coin and the catflap!"
  "The what?" said Richard.
  "The catflap! A device of the utmost cunning, perspicuity and invention. It is a door within a door, you see, a ..."
  "Yes," said Richard, "there was also the small matter of gravity."
  "Gravity," said Dirk with a slightly dismissive shrug, "yes, there was that as well, I suppose. Though that, of course, was merely a discovery. It was there to be discovered." …
  "You see?" he said dropping his cigarette butt, "They even keep it on at weekends. Someone was bound to notice sooner or later. But the catflap … ah, there is a very different matter. Invention, pure creative invention. It is a door within a door, you see."
  • Douglas Adams, in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

• It's a door, Sol. It's a door.
  • Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette, and Eric Watson, in lines written for the character Maximillian Cohen, about the irrational number π, in the film π (1998).

• There are a great many doors open; but a door must be of a man's size or it is not meant for him.
  • Henry Ward Beecher , As quoted in Henry Ward Beecher: His Life and Work (1887) by J.T. Lloyd, p. 261

• If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
  • William Blake, in "A Memorable Fancy" in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

• A life of love is one of continual growth, where the doors and windows of experience are always open to the wonder and magic that life offers. To love is to risk living fully.
  • Leo Buscaglia, in interview with Veronica M. Hay, in A Magazine of People and Possibilities (1998)

• Well, if I eat it, and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door: so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!
  • Lewis Carroll, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Alice speaking of a cake with "EAT ME" written upon it.

• there's a hell
  of a good universe next door; let's go
  • E. E. Cummings, in "pity this busy monster, manunkind" in 1 x 1 (1944)

• When God sends his angel to the soul it becomes the one who knows for sure. Not for nothing did God give the keys into St. Peter's keeping, for Peter stands for knowledge, and knowledge is the key that unlocks the door, presses forward and breaks in, to discover God as he is.
  • Meister Eckhart, in Sermon 9, as translated in The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church (1999) by Hughes Oliphant Old, Ch. 9 : The German Mystics, p. 448

• Last thing I remember, I was running for the door. I had to find the passage back, to the place I was before.
  • Don Henley, "Hotel California" (1976), Hotel California, Asylum Records

• I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
  • Jesus, as quoted in the Gospel of John 10:9-11

• When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
  • Helen Keller We Bereaved (1929)

• Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

• Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)

• Learning in the true sense of the word is possible only in that state of attention, in which there is no outer or inner compulsion. Right thinking can come about only when the mind is not enslaved by tradition and memory. It is attention that allows silence to come upon the mind, which is the opening of the door to creation.
  • Jiddu Krishnamurti, in Life Ahead (1963)

• In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
  • Jiddu Krishnamurti, as quoted in Perfecting Ourselves : Coordinating Body, Mind, and Spirit (2002) by Aaron Hoopes, p. 64

• Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate.
  • H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror " - Written Summer 1928; first published in Weird Tales, 13, No. 4, (April 1929).

• Maybe your reason why all the doors are closed
  So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
  • Katy Perry among other writers in the song Firework (2010)

• When people keep repeating
  That you'll never fall in love
  When everybody keeps retreating
  But you can't seem to get enough
  Let my love open the door
  Let my love open the door
  Let my love open the door
  To your heart.
  • Pete Townshend, in "Let My Love Open the Door" on Empty Glass (1980)

• Remember, I have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people. I have sent you as leaders instead, so that the people may follow your example. Give the Muslims their rights and do not beat them lest they become abused. Do not praise them unduly, lest they fall into the error of conceit. Do not keep your doors shut in their faces, lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones. And do not behave as if you were superior to them, for that is tyranny over them.
  • Umar, as quoted in Omar the Great : The Second Caliph Of Islam (1962) by Muhammad Shibli Numani, Vol. 2, p. 33