The lamps are going out

Later allusions

Grey's quotation has been used as a summation of the war in numerous historical works. The German author Ludwig Reiners (1896-1957) published an account of World War I entitled The lamps went out in Europe. Therein Grey's comment is followed by the assertion attributed to Otto von Bismarck: "The mistakes that have been committed in foreign policy are not, as a rule, apparent to the public until a generation afterwards." Samuel Hynes began his 1990 A War Imagined with a paragraph covering the quotation, referring to it as the best-known and most often quoted response to the beginning of the war. In 2014 Grey's words were the inspiration for part of the British commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Between 10 and 11 pm on 4 August 2014, lights were dimmed at many public locations and in private homes, including progressively at a national memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

The World War II song "When the Lights Go On Again" was written as a direct counterpart.

In the 1963 Theatre Workshop play Oh, What a Lovely War! the lines are given to an unnamed Englishman. In the 1969 film adaptation they are spoken by the character of Grey, portrayed by Ralph Richardson.

In the Upstairs, Downstairs Series Three finale "The Sudden Storm", which concerns the beginning of the First World War, the Conservative MP Richard Bellamy (David Langton) tells his daughter-in-law Hazel Bellamy (Meg Wynn Owen) that he was in Grey's presence when he said it the previous day (3 August 1914).

The quote is sometimes referenced in discussions of current events. For instance, The Nation asked "Are the lights going out all over Nigeria [sic]?" in response to the 2010 Nigerien coup d'état.

The Divine Comedy's song "When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe," from the Promenade album (1994), is a paean to the cinema stars of the 1940s and '50s.

In the final episode of the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look, a sketch depicts the show closing down due to lack of funds (because the show was illegally pirated). At the end of the sketch David Mitchell (in character as himself) declares tearfully "The lights are going out all over television, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime!"

On October 16, 1938, Winston Churchill broadcast a speech known as "The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)" to London and the United States. In the speech he says, "The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together."

In the Fritz Leiber short parallel worlds story "Catch That Zeppelin!" (1975), which received the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1976, the protagonist hears the words in his head, "The lights of Europe are going out, I do not think they will be rekindled in my generation —". He hears this as he is ejected from a parallel world that does not have many of the wars and injustices of the 20th century and returns to our world.