A List of Famous Edgar Allan Poe Quotes By Reference

A list of quotes from Edgar Allan Poe. Here are the best Edgar Allan Poe quotes on various subjects. The Edgar Allan Poe quotations list is alphabetical but can be sorted by any column. Enjoy these sayings coined by Edgar Allan Poe. You can use this list to create a new list, re-rank it to fit your opinion, then publish it.

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1

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! here, here! - It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

Edgar Allan Poe

Guilt, Confession, Hallucination
2

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this -- that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made -- not to understand -- but to feel -- as crime.

Edgar Allan Poe

Christians and Christianity
3

A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

Edgar Allan Poe

Revenge
4

After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.

Edgar Allan Poe

Soul, Meaning of life, God
5

All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream.

Edgar Allan Poe

Dream
6

Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry
7

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Edgar Allan Poe

Beauty
8

Believe me, there exists no such dilemma as that in which a gentleman is placed when he is forced to reply to a blackguard.

Edgar Allan Poe

Gentlemen
9

Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous.

Edgar Allan Poe

Analytics, Ingenuity
10

But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.

Edgar Allan Poe

Joy, Sorrow
11

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

Edgar Allan Poe

Dream
12

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

Edgar Allan Poe

Insanity
13

I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence.

Edgar Allan Poe

Self confidence
14

I have many occasional dealings with Adversity -- but the want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, Orphan, Loss of one or both parents
15

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.

Edgar Allan Poe

Perfection
16

I never can hear a crowd of people singing and gesticulating, all together, at an Italian opera, without fancying myself at Athens, listening to that particular tragedy, by Sophocles, in which he introduces a full chorus of turkeys, who set about bewailing the death of Meleager.

Edgar Allan Poe

Opera
17

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.

Edgar Allan Poe

Cat
18

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry, Beauty
19

If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment...

Edgar Allan Poe

Immortality, Confession
20

If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany but of the soul.

Edgar Allan Poe

Horror
21

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

Edgar Allan Poe
22

In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.

Edgar Allan Poe

Critics and Criticism
23

It may be roundly asserted that human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve.

Edgar Allan Poe

Cryptography, Cryptanalysis
24

It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma... which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.

Edgar Allan Poe
25

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

Edgar Allan Poe

Imagination, Ingenuity
26

Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

Edgar Allan Poe

Expectation, Happiness
27

Most writers -- poets in especial -- prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy -- an ecstatic intuition -- and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes...

Edgar Allan Poe

Creative writing, Writers and Writing, Composition
28

Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance.

Edgar Allan Poe

Memory
29

Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.

Edgar Allan Poe
30

Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.

Edgar Allan Poe

Pun
31

Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call "Silence" – which is the merest word of all.

Edgar Allan Poe
32

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"

Edgar Allan Poe
33

Thank Heaven! the crisis --The danger, is past, and the lingering illness, is over at last --, and the fever called Living is conquered at last.

Edgar Allan Poe

Death and Dying
34

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

Edgar Allan Poe

Coward and Cowardice
35

That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry, Thoughts and Thinking, Beauty
36

The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis.

Edgar Allan Poe

Analysis, Ingenuity
37

The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.

Edgar Allan Poe

Cards
38

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?

Edgar Allan Poe
39

The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poetics, Death of a beautiful woman
40

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

Edgar Allan Poe

Dream
41

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

Edgar Allan Poe

Mobs
42

The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood for the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid.

Edgar Allan Poe

Grammar, Punctuation
43

There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.

Edgar Allan Poe
44

There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

Edgar Allan Poe

Song and Singing
45

There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell.

Edgar Allan Poe

Hell, Life
46

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

Edgar Allan Poe

Love
47

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity; and thrill; in waking; to find they have been upon the verge of the great secret.

Edgar Allan Poe

Dream
48

To be thoroughly conversant with a man's heart, is to take our final lesson in the iron-clasped volume of despair.

Edgar Allan Poe

Despair
49

To observe attentively is to remember distinctly.

Edgar Allan Poe

Memory, Observation
50

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Edgar Allan Poe

Slander
51

We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused -- in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery -- by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press -- their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.

Edgar Allan Poe

Journalism and Journalists
52

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul. The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of Artist.

Edgar Allan Poe

Arts and Artists, Art
53

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry and Poets
54

Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heartone of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man.

Edgar Allan Poe

Perversion

Showing items 1 - 25 of 54

A List of Famous Edgar Allan Poe Quotes you can use this list to help make your own ranked list about this topic

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! here, here! - It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this -- that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made -- not to understand -- but to feel -- as crime.

A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream.

Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Believe me, there exists no such dilemma as that in which a gentleman is placed when he is forced to reply to a blackguard.

Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous.

But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence.

I have many occasional dealings with Adversity -- but the want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials.

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.

I never can hear a crowd of people singing and gesticulating, all together, at an Italian opera, without fancying myself at Athens, listening to that particular tragedy, by Sophocles, in which he introduces a full chorus of turkeys, who set about bewailing the death of Meleager.

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment...

If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany but of the soul.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.

It may be roundly asserted that human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve.

It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma... which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

Most writers -- poets in especial -- prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy -- an ecstatic intuition -- and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes...

Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance.

Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.

Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.

Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call "Silence" – which is the merest word of all.

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"

Thank Heaven! the crisis --The danger, is past, and the lingering illness, is over at last --, and the fever called Living is conquered at last.

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.

The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis.

The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.

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?

The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood for the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid.

There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.

There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell.

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity; and thrill; in waking; to find they have been upon the verge of the great secret.

To be thoroughly conversant with a man's heart, is to take our final lesson in the iron-clasped volume of despair.

To observe attentively is to remember distinctly.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul. The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of Artist.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heartone of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man.