Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

25 quotes

As an American writer and critic, Edgar Allan Poe earned a lasting place in the canon of memorable quotations. Beyond his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe proved equally skilled at capturing ideas in a sentence or two. Discover 41 of Edgar Allan Poe's most memorable quotes, ranging across Poetry, Imagination, Beauty, Truth, and Religion. Readers often gravitate to this one: "I have great faith in fools self-confidence my friends call it."

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

— Edgar Allan Poe

Beauty

All Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

“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