Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809 and orphaned by age three.
Raised by the Allans in Richmond, he later attended the University of Virginia but left due to unpaid gambling debts.
Post a strained relationship with his foster father, Poe enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1827 and began his literary journey.
After leaving the Military Academy due to financial strains, he lived with his aunt and cousin in Baltimore.
Poe became an editor and started publishing stories and poems, producing classics like “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” He married his young cousin, Virginia, in 1836.
Her death in 1847 intensified his issues with depression and alcohol. In 1849, Poe died mysteriously, possibly from rabies.
Renowned for pioneering horror and detective fiction, Poe greatly influenced global literature, being translated by figures like Baudelaire and inspiring the French Symbolists.
Below you will find best quotes by Edgar Allan Poe.
Best Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
1. “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
2. “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
3. “There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion”. ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
4. “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see”. ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
5. “Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
6. “There is no beauty without some strangeness.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
7. “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
8. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
9. “Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
10. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
11. “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
12. “I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
13. “Leave my loneliness unbroken.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
14. “To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
15. “And so being young and dipped in folly I fell in love with melancholy.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
Popular Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
16. “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
17. “Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
18. “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
19. “I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
20. “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
21. “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
22. “Stupidity is a talent for misconception.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
23. “The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
24. “If a poem hasn’t ripped apart your soul; you haven’t experienced poetry.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
25. “A wise man hears one word and understands two.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
Top Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
26. “There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
27. “Years of love have been forgotten in the hatred of a minute.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
28. “Deep in earth my love is lying And I must weep alone.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
29. “Those who gossip with you will gossip about you.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
30. “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).
31. “Every poem should remind the reader that they are going to die.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
32. “All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
33. “The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
34. “The eye, like a shattered mirror, multiplies the images of sorrow.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
35. “Lord help my poor soul.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
36. “The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
37. “The goodness of the true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
38. “I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
Famous Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
39. “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).
40. “It is a happiness to wonder; – it is a happiness to dream.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
41. “Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
42. “To observe attentively is to remember distinctly.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
43. “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).
44. “The best things in life make you sweaty.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
45. “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).
Wise Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
46. “That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
47. “I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
48. “There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
49. “False hope is nicer than no hope at all.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
50. “You call it hope-that fire of fire! It is but agony of desire.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
51. “And all I loved, I loved alone.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).
52. “I am a writer. Therefore I am not sane.” ~ (Edgar Allan Poe).