TOPICS
SPEAKERS
HOME
BROWSE TOPICS
BROWSE SPEAKERS
◀ BACK

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

Writer

Edgar Allan Poe, a master of gothic literature and poetry, explored the darker corners of the human mind with unmatched intensity. His quotes reflect his fascination with mystery, mortality, and the complexities of emotion and imagination. Together, they offer hauntingly beautiful insights into creativity, human nature, and the depths of thought and feeling.

1
2
I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.
From Marginalia
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Invisible things are the only realities.
From Loss of Breath
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being?
From The Imp of the Perverse
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You call it hope — that fire of fire!
It is but agony of desire.
From Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Lord help my poor soul.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness—for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee—and their will
Shall overshadow thee: be still. [...]
From Spirits of the Dead: Tales and Other Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
From The Black Cat
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Even in the grave, all is not lost.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
From The Premature Burial
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The idea of God, infinity, or spirit stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mysteries force a man to think, and so injure his health.
From Ne Pariez Jamais Votre
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.
From The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.
From The Raven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophers have often held dispute
As to the seat of thought in man and brute
For that the power of thought attends the latter
My friend, thy beau, hath made a settled matter,
And spite of dogmas current in all ages,
One settled fact is better than ten sages. (O,Tempora! O,Mores!)
From The Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is a happiness to wonder; -- it is a happiness to dream.
From Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?—from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born.
From Berenice
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.
From Marginalia
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Invisible things are the only realities.
From Loss of Breath
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being?
From The Imp of the Perverse
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You call it hope — that fire of fire!
It is but agony of desire.
From Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Lord help my poor soul.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness—for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee—and their will
Shall overshadow thee: be still. [...]
From Spirits of the Dead: Tales and Other Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
From The Black Cat
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Even in the grave, all is not lost.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
From The Premature Burial
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The idea of God, infinity, or spirit stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mysteries force a man to think, and so injure his health.
From Ne Pariez Jamais Votre
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.
From The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.
From The Raven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophers have often held dispute
As to the seat of thought in man and brute
For that the power of thought attends the latter
My friend, thy beau, hath made a settled matter,
And spite of dogmas current in all ages,
One settled fact is better than ten sages. (O,Tempora! O,Mores!)
From The Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is a happiness to wonder; -- it is a happiness to dream.
From Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?—from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born.
From Berenice
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.
From Marginalia
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Invisible things are the only realities.
From Loss of Breath
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being?
From The Imp of the Perverse
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You call it hope — that fire of fire!
It is but agony of desire.
From Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Lord help my poor soul.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness—for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee—and their will
Shall overshadow thee: be still. [...]
From Spirits of the Dead: Tales and Other Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
From The Black Cat
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Even in the grave, all is not lost.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
From The Premature Burial
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The idea of God, infinity, or spirit stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mysteries force a man to think, and so injure his health.
From Ne Pariez Jamais Votre
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.
From The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.
From The Raven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophers have often held dispute
As to the seat of thought in man and brute
For that the power of thought attends the latter
My friend, thy beau, hath made a settled matter,
And spite of dogmas current in all ages,
One settled fact is better than ten sages. (O,Tempora! O,Mores!)
From The Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is a happiness to wonder; -- it is a happiness to dream.
From Complete Stories and Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?—from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born.
From Berenice
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
1
2