Quotessence
Home / Authors / Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenSoulIfsDreamPoetryHeartLifeThoughtfulHas BeensLove

Famous Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

“It might have been midnight, or perhaps earlier, or later, for I had taken no note of time, when a sob, low, gentle, but very distinct, startled me from my revery. - I felt that it came from the bed of ebony - the bed of death. I listened in an agony of superstitious terror - but there was no repetition of the sound. I strained my vision to detect any motion in the corpse - but there was not the slightest perceptible.”

HauntingLigeia
Book:The Complete Stories and Poems
Create image

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 25 Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore:" Merely this and nothing more.”

LovePoemLiterature QuotesYalnızlıkLonelinessquotes
Book:Collected Poems
Create image

“Upon mankind at large the events of very early existence rarely leave in mature age any definite impression. All is gray shadow -- a weak and irregular remembrance -- and indistinct regathering of feeble pleasures and phantasmagoric pains. With me this is not so. In childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian medals.”

Childhood
Book:William Wilson
Create image

“I would here observe that very much of what is rejected as evidence by a court, is the best of evidence to the intellect. For the court, guiding itself by the general principles of evidence- the recognized and booked principles- is averse from swerving at particular instances. And this steadfast adherence to principle, with rigorous disregard of the conflicting exception, is a sure mode of attaining the maximum of attainable truth, in any long sequence of time. The practice, in mass, is therefore philosophical; but it is not the less certain that it engenders vast individual error ("A theory based on the qualities of an object, will prevent its being unfolded according to its objects; and he who arranges topics in reference to their causes, will cease to value them according to their results. Thus the jurisprudence of every nation will show that, when law becomes a science and a system, it ceases to be justice. The errors into which a blind devotion to principles of classification has led the common law, will be seen by observing how often the legislature has been obliged to come forward to restore the equity its scheme had lost."- Landor.)”

JusticeHuman ErrorEdgar Allan PoeThe Mystery Of Marie Roget
Book:The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
Create image

“[He] found the beast occupying his bedroom, into which it had broken from a closet adjoining, where it had been, as was thought, securely confined. Razor in hand, and fully lathered, it was sitting before a looking-glass, attempting the operation of shaving, in which it had no doubt previously watched its master through the keyhole of the closet.”

MysteryAmateur SleuthTales Of Mystery
Book:The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Create image

“I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter desperation of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the afterdream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into everyday life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.”

Gothic FictionTales Of MysteryHorrow
Book:The Fall of the House of Usher
Create image

“Zekice bir kitap yazmışsın, Bon-Bon,” diye devam etti Majesteleri, dostumuzun omzuna, o verilen emri tam anlamıyla yerine getirdikten sonra bardağını bırakırken hafifçe, bilgiç bir tavırla vurarak. “Kesinlikle zekice bir kitap. Tam benim sevdiğim türden bir eser. Ancak özdeğe ilişkin tasarımın geliştirilebilir ve fikirlerinin pek çoğu bana Aristoteles’i anımsatıyor. O filozof en yakın tanıdıklarımdan biriydi. Onu hem korkunç huysuzluğundan, hem de pot kırmak gibi eğlenceli bir yönünden dolayı severdim. Bütün o yazdıkları arasında tek bir somut gerçek var ki, onun ipucunu da kendisinin absürdlüğünü sevdiğim için ben verdim. Pierre Bon-Bon, hangi yüce ahlâki gerçekten bahsettiğimi biliyorsun sanırım, değil mi?” “Bildiğimi söyleyemem –” “Evet! – Aristoteles’e insanların hapşırırken gereksiz fikirleri burunlarından dışarı attığını söyleyen bendim.” “Bu –hık!– gerçekten de doğru,” dedi metafizikçi, kendisine bir bardak daha Mousseux koyarken ve ziyaretçisinin parmaklarına enfiye kutusunu sunarken. “Platon’a da,” diye devam etti Majesteleri, enfiye kutusunu ve içerdiği iltifatı alçakgönüllülükle geri çevirerek, “Platon’a da bir zamanlar arkadaşça hisler beslemiştim. Platon’la tanıştın mı Bon-Bon? – Ah! Hayır, binlerce kez özür dilerim. Benimle bir gün Atina’da, Parthenon’da karşılaştı ve bana bir fikirden bunaldığını söyledi. Ona ο νους εδτιv αυλος‘yu* yazmasını önerdim. Bunu yapacağını söyleyip eve gitti, ben de piramitlere çıktım. Ama vicdanım beni bir arkadaşa bile olsa birine gerçeği söylediğim için kınadı ve apar topar Atina’ya geri dönüp ‘αυλος’yu yazarken filozofun sandalyesinin arkasında durdum. Kağıda parmağımla dokunarak ters çevirdim. Böylece cümle şimdi ‘ο νους εδτιv αυγος’** olarak okunuyor ve gördüğün gibi, metafiziğinin temel doktrini.” “Hiç Roma’da bulundunuz mu?” diye sordu restaurateur, ikinci Mousseux şişesini bitirdikten sonra dolaptan büyük bir şişe Chambertin alırken. “Sadece bir kez, sevgili Bon-Bon, sadece bir kez. Bir ara” –dedi Şeytan, sanki bir kitaptan okurcasına– “bir ara beş yıllık bir anarşi dönemi olmuştu ve o sırada bütün memurlarından yoksun kalan cumhuriyetin halkın seçtiklerinden başka yargıcı yoktu. Bunlar da yasal idari yetkiye sahip değildi – o zaman, Mösyö Bon-Bon – yalnızca o zaman Roma’daydım ve bu yüzden onun felsefesine ilişkin dünyevi bir tanıdığım yok.” “Epicurus hakkında ne –hık!– ne düşünüyorsunuz?” “Kimin hakkında?” dedi şeytan şaşkınlıkla, “Epicurus’ta kusur bulmak istiyor olamazsın! Epicurus hakkında ne düşünüyormuşum! Beni mi kastediyorsunuz bayım? – Epicurus benim. Diogenes Laertes tarafından adı anılan üç yüz bilimsel incelemenin herbirini yazan filozof benim.” * Ruh bir flüttür. ** Ruh parlak bir ışıktır.”

FelsefePlatonşEytanAristotelesEpikür
Book:Bon-Bon
Create image

“Das Ufer des Flusses und der vielen glitzernden Bächlein, die ihm auf allerlei Umwegen zuströmten, und ebenso alle Flächen, die von den Ufern sich ans Wasser hinuntersenkten, waren von kurzem, dichten, gleichmäßigen Rasen bedeckt, der lieblich duftete. Und weiter noch dehnte sich dieser sanfte grüne Teppich, durchs ganze Tal, vom Fluß bis an den Fuß der Höhen, die es umgürteten. Diese wundervolle weite Grasfläche war über und über mit gelben Butterblumen, weißen Gänseblümchen, blauen Veilchen und rubinroten Asphodelen besprenkelt, und ihre unbeschreibliche Schönheit redete laut zu unsern Herzen von der Liebe und der Herrlichkeit Gottes.”

LiebeGottNatur
Book:Eleonora
Create image

“No fui en la infancia como los otros ni nunca vi como los otros vieron. Mis pasiones ya no podía hacer brotar de fuentes iguales a las de ellos; y era otro el origen de mi tristeza, y era otro el canto que despertaba mi corazón para la alegría. Todo lo que amé lo amé solo. Así en mi infancia, en el alba de mi tormentosa vida, irguióse, desde el fondo de todo bien o todo mal, desde cada abismo, encadenándome, el misterio que envuelve mi destino.”

TerrorPoesía
Author:Edgar Allan Poe
Create image

“As the strongman exalts in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as called his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He's fond of enigmas, of conundrums, hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears the ordinary apprehension præternatural.”

MysteryCrime FictionTales Of Mystery
Book:The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Create image

“Yet, for a while, I saw—but with how terrible an exaggeration! I saw the lips of the black-robed judges. They appeared to me white—whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words—and thin even to grotesqueness; thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness—of immoveable resolution—of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that the decrees of what to me was Fate were still issuing from those lips. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the syllables of my name; and I shuddered because no sound succeeded.”

GothicHorror FictionTales Of Mystery
Book:The Pit and the Pendulum
Create image