If you’ve ever felt like one version of you goes to work while another handles traffic rage—congrats, you already relate to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of duality is a haunting ride through the human psyche, but let’s be honest—it’s also rich with irony, drama, and just the right amount of Victorian absurdity to make it meme-worthy.
This post features 80+ of the most iconic, twisted, and thoughtful Jekyll and Hyde quotes, spiced up with witty, sarcastic, and darkly humorous takes. Whether you’re here for literary insight or just love a good villain monologue, there’s something here to make you chuckle and question your own sanity—just a little.
Quotes on Duality and Identity Crisis
- “Man is not truly one, but truly two.”
- “I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self.”
- “I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man.”
- “If each could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable.”
- “The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.”
- “I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint.”
- “I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness… I was radically both.”
- “I was the first who could thus plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment… spring headlong into the sea of liberty.”
- “It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty.”
- “It was Hyde who was hated.”
Hyde’s Sinister Moments with a Side of Sass
- “The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde. I choose! I choose! I choose!”
- “The man trampled calmly over the child’s body.”
- “Something displeasing, something downright detestable.”
- “There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.”
- “It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.”
- “Satan’s signature upon a face.”
- “There was a shrunken stature, a deformity without any name.”
- “The mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit.”
- “The animal within me licking the chops of memory.”
- “Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll.”
Jekyll’s Self-Aware Suffering
- “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”
- “Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures.”
- “I was the chief of sinners, I was the chief of sufferers also.”
- “The moment I choose to throw off this body… I do.”
- “I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.”
- “I began to be tortured with throes and longings.”
- “The balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown.”
- “The temptation of a discovery so singular and profound.”
- “With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth.”
- “The moment I choose, I can do away with Hyde… until I couldn’t.”
Utterson’s Investigative Dry Humor (Intentional or Not)
- “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.”
- “If he be Mr. Hyde… I shall be Mr. Seek.”
- “He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind.”
- “Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!”
- “The moment I choose! The moment I choose! Madness, I tell you.”
- “It is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me.”
- “He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure.”
- “O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.”
- “There must be something else, if I could only find a name for it.”
- “I shall consider it my duty to break in that door.”
Mr. Enfield’s Observations with Unintentional Comedic Timing
- “I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.”
- “He’s not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance.”
- “It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.”
- “He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity.”
- “He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.”
- “The more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”
- “We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this as should make his name stink.”
- “I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”
- “Some place at the end of the world.”
- “The kind of man who is never more seen.”
Quotes on Repression, Morality, and Secret Desires
- “The moment I chose to cast off restraint, Hyde was waiting.”
- “My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.”
- “The lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for freedom.”
- “Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter.”
- “I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen of our life is bound forever on man’s shoulders.”
- “Even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.”
- “I was still cursed with my duality of purpose.”
- “The solution of the mystery was always at the back of his mind.”
- “This, as I take it, was because all human beings are commingled out of good and evil.”
- “The hard law of life, which lies at the root of religion.”
Sarcastic and Modern Takes on Victorian Tragedy
- “Hyde was Jekyll’s dark side—and his bad impulse had zero chill.”
- “Dual identity: because one version of you isn’t emotionally exhausting enough.”
- “Jekyll said ‘I can control it,’ then drank a potion and unleashed a menace.”
- “This is what happens when you skip therapy and invent your own solution.”
- “Hyde didn’t walk—he stomped over children and social norms.”
- “Victorian guilt hits harder when you bottle it and call it science.”
- “If red flags were Victorian, they’d be wearing a top hat and a twisted grin.”
- “Hyde was basically Jekyll’s ‘I’m tired of being polite’ energy.”
- “Jekyll turned ‘don’t bottle things up’ into a literal horror story.”
- “This novella really said: suppress yourself and suffer stylishly.”
Transformation and the Final Twist
- “The body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching.”
- “A new life began for Dr. Jekyll.”
- “The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine.”
- “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”
- “You must suffer me to go my own dark way.”
- “The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll.”
- “This is my true hour of death.”
- “I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.”
- “I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifaceted masks.”
- “Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.”
Conclusion
From potions to alter egos, guilt to unchecked desires, Jekyll and Hyde is the ultimate tale of “what could go wrong?” with a double life. But when viewed through a witty and sarcastic lens, these 80+ Jekyll and Hyde quotes give us not just psychological insight, but dark comedy gold.
Which quote made you pause—or laugh too hard at your own inner Hyde? Share your favorites below, or leave your own twisted take in the comments.
Pass this along to the friend who hides their evil side behind polite emails. And remember—sometimes it’s not about defeating your dark side, just not giving it a top hat and a key to your lab.