30 Best Quotes From Netflix's Dark

Set in the fictional small town of Winden, Germany, Netflix's Dark had thought-provoking storylines and quotes filled with complex narratives on time, fate, and free will. Dark follows several characters through mind-bending events after the disappearance of Mikkel, the youngest child of the Nielsen family. The show explores, through three gripping seasons, the secrets and fate of four main families and the choices and sins that each character makes. As thrilling and suspenseful as the show was, some of the dialogue from Dark has made the biggest impact of all with audiences. Dark was an instant global success for Netflix as viewers engaged with the show for its mind-bending events, series soundtracks, remarkable scenes, and gut-wrenching dialogues. Though sometimes compared to shows like Strangers Things, it is certainly its own unique story that continues to find new fans. Many characters delivered profound quotes on fate, reality, and the freedom of choice. This results in some of the best Dark quotes from the first season of the show all the way to Dark's ending in season 3. 30 "We Are All Full Of Sin. No Pure Human Being Exists. But No Matter What We Do, We Never Fall Any Lower Than Into God's Hands." Noah (Mark Waschke) One of the biggest themes throughout Dark is what awaits people and how faith plays into that. Noah has some of the best quotes from the series, and while he speaks from the angle of religion, he is also someone who knows that it is always good to ask questions. This quote comes while Noah is counseling Greta Doppler after her son disappears. She is full of grief and makes some terrible comments, including saying she wishes that Helge had never been born. According to Greta, since Helge was possibly born out of rape, that means he was not a child created from love. This was heartbreaking in and of itself, but then Noah delivers this quote in response to remind her that all humans are full of sin, and Helge's birth was no different. It is clear that Noah is conflicted, but at the same time, he knows that everyone deserves a chance, although he shows his duplicity later when he is in 1986 and working with Helge, dismissing God himself. 29 "God Doesn't Have A Plan. There Is No Plan At All." Noah (Mark Waschke) Jonas is looking for hope throughout all of Dark and believes that he can find a way out to save the people he loves. However, no matter how much he does and no matter how far he gets, he finds things that keep knocking him down. Sadly, he also has the false priest Noah talking in his ear and sowing the seeds of doubt. While Noah has given plenty of positive messages of hope, they are all tinged with doubt, and this quote is possibly one of his darkest. "There’s nothing but chaos out there. Pain and chaos! People are bad. Malicious, evil. Life is nothing but a spiral of pain. And the world is doomed to be destroyed." Looking at just these words, it almost seems like Dark believes that there is a pointless cycle of death and violence and that everyone on Earth is trapped in this cycle, never able to escape and find peace. By the end, this Netflix series shows that the opposite is true. However, Noah's delivery of these depressing and nihilistic quotes sets up the viewers to doubt a happy ending could be coming for Jonah at all. 28 “A Man Lives Three Lives." Eva (Barbara Nüsse) Adam is speaking to Eva, and she reveals to him the idea that a man lives three lives, and all three lives are about losing things. Eva's goal is to sow more seeds of doubt into Adam and ensure that nothing can change and that the knot between the two worlds is never severed. That leads her to start to deliver quotes that are brilliant and wise but also ominous at the same time. Here is the rest of the quote: "The first one ends with the loss of naivety, the second, with the loss of innocence and the third… with the loss of life itself. It’s inevitable that we go through all three stages.” This has a deep meaning. Eva is claiming that first, a man will lose his naivety, which is a lack of wisdom and judgment. Once a person loses that, they are forced to look at the world for how it really is and see the darkness and evil throughout humanity. The lack of innocence is a little different because this is where a man realizes he is no longer innocent and is just as guilty of darkness as anyone else. Then, the loss of life shows that it is too late to ever return to the time of innocence. 27 "A Man Can Do What He Wills, But He Cannot Will What He Wills." Arthur Schopenhauer This is not a quote by a character in Dark. Instead, this famous line was added to the start of season 3 to set that season's story into motion. Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher who believed that the world is the manifestation of blind and irrational will. This actually plays very well into the twists that come in the third season, where the story shows that everyone is connected in ways that few could have expected when the story began. This world of Dark exists because everyone is connected thanks to the fact that time travel has allowed people to become their own ancestors, and if one of the strings is cut out, everything could unravel, and nothing would exist anymore. Schopenhauer's musings indicate that the world only exists because of irrational will means that the people in this world can't change anything because nothing that they know is actually real at all. There is no free will because nothing is real. 26 "Everything Repeats Itself Again And Again For All Eternity... Because None Of Us Are Prepared To Let Go." Eva (Barbara Nüsse) Eva explains why it is so important for her to win and Jonas to lose because, as she says, the two worlds can never untangle, and no one can ever be allowed to sever them or break them apart. She shows this by explaining the "switch point," which is mostly shown as an infinite loop, with two realities existing on top of each other at the same time, with differences, but never a chance to sever and create one simple reality. According to Eva, everything repeats itself forever, which proves that no one is free to do what they want, because no one is free to choose what they want. When she explains why this is necessary, she delivers this line and simply explains that no one is prepared to let go. Jonas responds that they are the gitch, but Eva's line here is simply to make Jonas let go so she can finish this her way, but at the same time, it shows that she is also not willing to let go either. 25 "There Is No Such Thing As Magic, Just Illusion." Mikkel Nielsen (Sebastian Rudolph) In season 1 of Dark, Mikkel is a mystery, and no one knows what to make of the man. In a scene from 1986, Mikkel is sitting on a bench, and Hannah sees him there. Feeling unsure about herself, she walks over as he is opening a present and starts to talk to him. She sees that his present is a children's book, I Am Not Afraid. Hannah admits to him that she likes to pretend that she can do magic, and if she wants something bad enough, it happens. "Things only change when we change them. But you have to do it skillfully, in secret. Then it seems like magic." She even claims she can move objects with her mind if she wants it bad enough. This finally gets Mikkel to talk to her and he delivers this line. He asks if she has heard of Houdini (she hasn't) and then shows her a magic trick with a bottle cap disappearing and reappearing in his other hand. This is highly important as he admits to her that he is from the future, and the two introduce themselves to each other. The idea of magic not existing is important to the idea of science and fate. 24 "There Was This Sadness In His Eyes. The Kind You Sometimes See In Those Who Want To Die, But Life Won't Let Them." Noah (Mark Waschke) In 1986, Helge is talking to Noah and their discussion turns to the idea of God. When Noah contradicts himself by saying he believes in God but knows there is no God. it confuses Helge. That is when Noah breaks down what he believes in and why it is so important to him. According to Noah, people prefer to believe in a lie rather than to live in pain. He said that he met a stranger years ago and this quote was how Noah described the person who came to see them. "Nothing is in vain, not a single breath, not a single step, not a single word. Not pain." This man with sadness in his eyes lived with Noah, and it is this man who taught Noah what he would grow up to believe in and what would help him get by in the years as he became a man. The man explained, "Nothing is in vain, not a single breath, not a single step, not a single word. Not pain." This is what Noah brought back into his mind when he experienced great pain and realized that he should use it to be stronger, not weaker. There can be sadness, but always believe in moving forward. 23 "What If Everything That Came From The Past Was Influenced By The Future?" H.G. Tannhaus (Christian Steyer) In 1953, H.G. Tannhaus was operating a clockmaker's shop and this is when he began his obsession with time travel, the future, and the past. A girl brought a watch and encountered Ulrich Nielsen from the future. This is when Tannhaus was given blueprints to build a clockwork apparatus. After 33 years, Tannhaus is still working in the same shop and has become more obsessed with the idea of the past and future. That is when The Stranger shows up, and things tie together. The Stranger needed Tannhaus to repair his apparatus (a machine powered by the fluid form of the God particle), but Tannhaus couldn't. However, he then pulled out the device he had built from the old blueprints and was able to finish it. This leads to the quote here, where he admits that he received blueprints from the future to make a device in the past to help replace it again in the future. The entire idea of interconnected time travel is explained perfectly in this Dark quote. 22 "But Every Now And Then It's Good To Question Those Who Question Things." Noah (Mark Waschke) Noah has a lot of advice for Mikkel when it comes to his place in the world and the idea of faith in the face of doubt. In the episode "Truths," Mikkel is talking to Noah about the idea of religion, and the boy says, "My father says religion is the brainwashing of the masses." That is when Noah plays it smart and doesn't dismiss what Mikkel's dad said, or even talk down about the man. Instead, Noah decides to use his skill to logically debate and explain things to the boy. He delivers this quote, which says a lot about Noah's beliefs and his respect for others. "I'm sure your father knows a lot, but he doesn't know everything," Noah begins. He then compliments Noah's dad on teaching the boy to question things. However, he then says this, and he explains that everyone needs to be questioned. This is also the start of Mikkel discovering the truth because when someone is so determined to disbelieve something, there must be a reason. 21 "I've Woken Up And I No Longer Know If I'm A Person Who Dreamed He's A Butterfly Or If I'm A Butterfly Who's Dreaming It's A Person." Ines Kahnwald (Angela Winkler) There is a lot to unpack in Dark, both for the viewers and for the characters themselves. Many characters know this and admit as much, allowing the audience to breathe a sigh of relief when they struggle to figure out what is in the series. Ines Kahnwald is Michael (Mikkel)'s adoptive mother and Jonas's adoptive grandmother, and she is talking to Mikkel in 1986 when she recounts the story that this quote comes from. When she is talking to Mikkel, he shows Ines a magic trick, talks to her about Houdini, and says he wants to be a magician like his hero. With that said, Mikkel just wants to "wake up" and return to his reality, and can't. Ines then explains Master Zhuang's paradox, and she asks Mikkel what he would be in that situation, to which Mikkel replies he would want to be both. That is a large theme for his story arc and a very important part of his and Ines's story and relationship.