The 23 best famous quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

A genius of gothic literature: we take a closer look at the American writer's terrifying work.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) was an impressive writer, poet and journalist born in Boston, United States. He is considered one of the best authors in the genre of the short story and gothic novel.

His horror stories and his foray into science fiction brought him great posthumous recognition, but he lived among hardships and miseries during his short but exceptional life. Near his death, he wanted to found his own newspaper, called "The Stylus", although he failed in the attempt.

Incredible phrases of Edgar Allan Poe

Representative of surrealism, Poe influenced different prose genres across the globe. To get closer to his work and his unparalleled mystique, we have decided to pay tribute to this literary genius through the 25 best Edgar Allan Poe quotes..

Will you join us on this journey into darkness?

1. Whatever its parentage, beauty, in its supreme development, inevitably induces tears in sensitive souls.

A phrase that could well be the description of the Stendhal Syndrome.

2. In the selfless love of an animal, in the sacrifice of itself, there is something that goes straight to the Heart of one who has often had occasion to witness the mean friendship and fragile fidelity of the natural Man.

The purity of the animal against the cruelty of the human being.

3. When a madman seems completely sensible, it is time to put him in a straitjacket.

Ironic phrase that can be interpreted in different ways.

4. The corruption of taste is part of the dollar industry and plays along with it.

About the crematistic and its influence on our lives.

5. Men of genius abound much more than is supposed. In fact, to fully appreciate the work of what we call genius it is necessary to possess all the genius it took to produce the work.

On the unlimited creativity of the genius mind.

6. He is not truly brave who fears to appear, or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

Cowardice is the worst defect one can possess.

7. Science has not yet taught us whether madness is or is not the most sublime of intelligence.

One of those phrases of madness that leaves no one indifferent.

8. It is perhaps in music that the soul comes closest to the great end for which it strives when it is inspired by poetic feeling: the creation of supernatural beauty.

Great phrase about music and its unequaled aesthetic power.

9. In criticism I will be courageous, severe and absolutely fair to friend and foe. Nothing will change this purpose.

The justice of one's own opinion must be unwavering.

10. All works of art must begin at the end.

A curious reflection of Edgar Allan Poe.

11. If I were asked to define in a few words the term art, I would call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.

In one of his most famous phrases, Edgar Allan Poe tells us his opinion about what art is.

12. All that we see or seem is only a dream within a dream.

Could existence be a mere concatenation of dreams? Perhaps.

13. I have no faith in human perfection. Man is now more active, not happier, not more intelligent, than he was 6000 years ago.

Despite technical advances, human existence continues to be marred by the same idleness, vanity and inaction.

14. It is doubtful that the human race will succeed in creating an enigma that human ingenuity itself does not solve.

It is at this crossroads that human thought finds itself.

15. Death is faced with courage and then invited to a drink.

With chivalry and gentleness.

16. I went mad, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

One of Edgar Allan Poe's phrases most remembered for its brilliance.

17. I have great faith in fools, self-confidence my friends call it.

For an inveterate pessimist like Poe, any hint of grandiloquence was sheer nonsense.

18. Believe only half of what you see and none of what you hear.

On credulity.

19. The only way for man to keep his freedom is to be always ready to die for it.

Passion for life is a sine qua non condition for not seeing one's freedom taken away.

Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the matter that leads us into error.

Sometimes Ockhan's razor simply does not work.

21. The death of a beautiful woman is undoubtedly the most poetic subject in the world.

As Poe proposes, it is an event that brings together several elements of special poetic and aesthetic transcendence.

22. Every movement, whatever its cause, is creative.

Creative forces, always dynamic.

23. Do we not have in us a perpetual inclination, despite the excellence of our judgment, to violate what is the Law, simply because we understand that it is the Law?

On the human propensity to break the imposed norms.