Black

Black is the colour of coal, ebony, and of outer space.  It is the darkest colour, the result of the absence of or complete absorption of light.  It is the opposite of white (the combined spectrum of colour or light) and represents the absence of color.  Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings.  In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic.  According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the colour most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, power, violence, evil, and elegance.

Quotes

• I saw a mighty Devil folded in black clouds [...]
  • William Blake, "A Memorable Fancy," The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), plate 6.

• By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyſs, fiery as the smoke of a burning city; beneath us at an immense distance was the sun, black but shining round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd vast spiders, crawling after their prey; which flew or rather swum in infinite deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption. & the air was full of them, & seemd composed of them; these are Devils. and are called Powers of the air [...]
  • William Blake, "A Memorable Fancy," The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), plate 18.

• [speaking of Leviathan] [...] soon we saw his mouth & red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep with beams of blood, advancing toward us with all the fury of a spiritual existence.
  • William Blake, "A Memorable Fancy," The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), plates 18–19.

• Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...
  • Batman The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom Detective Comics #33 (November 1939), written by Bill Finger

• We chanced in passing by that afternoon
  To catch it in a sort of special picture
  Among tar-banded ancient cherry trees,
  Set well back from the road in rank lodged grass,
  The little cottage we were speaking of,
  A front with just a door between two windows,
  Fresh painted by the shower a velvet black.
  • Robert Frost, "The Black Cottage," North of Boston, 2nd ed. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915; orig. 1914), lines 1–7.

• Black, (blak), adj. Destitute of light, devoid of color, enveloped in darkness. Hence, utterly dismal or gloomy, as "the future looked black.
  • Dictionary Autobiography of Malcolm X, Directed, produced and written by Spike Lee, based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley.

• I dress in black because it makes me look less fat, it’s as simple as that. It’s not a gothic flourish.

Alan Moore Quote from several hours of an "Alan Moore Interview" by Matthew De Abaitua (1998), later published in Alan Moore: Conversations (2011) edited by Eric L. Berlatsky

• We're here to make coffee metal. We're here to make everything metal. Blacker than the blackest black... times infinity.
  • Nathan Explosion Metalocalype The Curse of Dethklok written by Tommy Blacha & Brendon Small

• Nah nah nah
  The good guys dress in black, remember that
  Just in case we ever face to face and make contact
  The title held by me, MIB
  Means what you think you saw, you did not see
  So don't brink be what was there is now gone
  The black suits with the black Ray Bans on.
  • Will Smith Men in Black (film) song lyrics.

• …nothing is more uncommon than a very large or a very small man; and this applies generally to all extremes, whether of great and small, or swift and slow, or fair and foul, or black and white; and whether the instances you select be man or dogs or anything else, few are the extremes, but many are in the mean between them.
  • Socrates, as quoted by Plato in Phaedo.

• No way, no way. Tried it once, doesn't work. You got four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Mr. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mr. Yellow.
  • Joe, Reservoir Dogs written by Quentin Tarantino

• They fall on top of each other.  The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.
  • Markus Zusak, The Book Thief (2005); the narrator of the story is Death.

From music

• I only smile in the dark
  My only comfort is the night gone black
  I didn't accidentally tell you that
  I'm only happy when it rains
  • Garbage, "Only Happy When It Rains," Garbage (1995).

• I see a red door and I want it painted black
  No colours any more, I want them to turn black
  I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes
  I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

• I see a line of cars and they're all painted black

• I look inside myself and see my heart is black

• It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

• I wanna see it painted, painted black
  Black as night, black as coal
  • The Rolling Stones, "Paint It, Black," Aftermath (1966).

• Black as holes within a memory
  • Tool, "Third Eye," Ænima (1996).

• Beat my compassion black and blue
  • Tool, "Ticks & Leeches," Lateralus (2001).

• Black
  Then
  White are
  All I see
  In my infancy
  Red and yellow then came to be
  Reaching out to me
  Lets me see
  • Tool, "Lateralus," Lateralus (2001).

See also

• Black people