“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
Art
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Beauty
“I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Beauty
“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Fear
“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Love
“It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Nature
“Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Intelligence
“With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Poetry
“Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Experience
“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.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Future
“Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Life
“To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Great
“I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Pet
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Dreams
“I have no faith in human perfectability. 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
Faith
“The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Death
“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
Friendship
“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
Men
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Imagination
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
Power