130 Edgar Allan Poe Quotes About Life, Love and Happiness

Want to see the light beckoning through the darkness?

This thoughtful collection of Edgar Allan Poe quotes will help you see things from an interesting perspective.

In the realm of mystery and horror, perhaps no greater writer comes to mind more than the name Edgar Allan Poe.

Early on, Poe proved to the world that he had the gift of the pen.

A few of his notable works, such as “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “Annabel Lee,” all continue to inspire readers even to this day.

In fact, his writings gave birth to modern detective stories.

Despite being gifted with words, his life had been riddled with its share of sorrow and hardship.

In fact, his death on October 7, 1849, was as shrouded in mystery as was his tales.

Still, he left a powerful legacy for those who would dare to follow in his footsteps.

Thought-provoking Edgar Allan Poe quotes

1. “If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.” – Edgar Allan Poe

You will also enjoy our article on short inspirational poems.

2. “Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.” – Edgar Allan Poe

3. “And so being young and dipped in folly I fell in love with melancholy.” – Edgar Allan Poe

4. “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” – Edgar Allan Poe

5. “I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.” – Edgar Allan Poe

6. “The true genius shudders at incompleteness — imperfection — and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.” – Edgar Allan Poe

7. “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

8. “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.” – Edgar Allan Poe

9. “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” – Edgar Allan Poe

10. “I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe quotes on beauty, dreams, and madness

11. “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” – Edgar Allan Poe

12. “There is no exquisite beauty…without some strangeness in the proportion.” – Edgar Allan Poe

13. “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” – Edgar Allan Poe

14. “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” – Edgar Allan Poe

15. “Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.” – Edgar Allan Poe

16. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” – Edgar Allan Poe

17. “With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” – Edgar Allan Poe

18. “Even in the grave, all is not lost.” – Edgar Allan Poe

19. “There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.” – Edgar Allan Poe

20. “I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down.” – Edgar Allan Poe

More inspirational Edgar Allan Poe quotes about life

21. “The ninety and nine are with dreams, content, but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.” – Edgar Allan Poe

22. “Mysteries force a man to think, and so injure his health.” – Edgar Allan Poe

23. “Art is to look at not to criticize.” – Edgar Allan Poe

24. “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

25. “To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.” – Edgar Allan Poe

26. “I dread the events of the future, not in themselves but in their results.” – Edgar Allan Poe

27. “There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told.” – Edgar Allan Poe

28. “I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind.” – Edgar Allan Poe

29. “Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.” – Edgar Allan Poe

30. “And all I loved, I loved alone.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Powerful Edgar Allan Poe quotes

31. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe

32. “Deep in earth my love is lying/And I must weep alone.” – Edgar Allan Poe

33. “That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.” – Edgar Allan Poe

34. “Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.” – Edgar Allan Poe

35. “Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence…” – Edgar Allan Poe

36. “Stupidity is a talent for misconception.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

37. “If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.” — Edgar Allan Poe

38. “Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.” – Edgar Allan Poe

39. “It is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.” – Edgar Allan Poe

40. “Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe quotes that will expand your mind

41. “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

42. “All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.”  ― Edgar Allan Poe

43. “Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore…” ― Edgar Allan Poe

44. “There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of songwriting is, I think, one of the few.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

45. “The idea of God, infinity, or spirit stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

46. “I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow.”  ― Edgar Allan Poe

47. “There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm” ― Edgar Allan Poe

48. “Invisible things are the only realities.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

49. “Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

50. “The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe quotes to elevate your perspective

51. “To observe attentively is to remember distinctly.”― Edgar Allan Poe

52. “It is far more easy to get up than to come down.”― Edgar Allan Poe

53. “He who pleases is of more importance to his fellow man than he who instructs.”― Edgar Allen Poe

54. “There are few persons who have not, at some period of their lives, amused themselves in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their own minds have been attained.”― Edgar Allan Poe

55. “I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.”― Edgar Allan Poe

56. “And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense?”― Edgar Allan Poe

57. “Because it was my crime to have no one on Earth who cared for me, or loved me.”― Edgar Allan Poe

58. “If we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being?”― Edgar Allan Poe

59. “The best things in life make you sweaty.”― Edgar Allan Poe

60. “There is no beauty without some strangeness.”― Edgar Allan Poe

61. “Actually, I do have doubts, all the time. Any thinking person does. There are so many sides to every question.”― Edgar Allan Poe

62. “My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence.”― Edgar Allan Poe

63. “Art was, for Poe, the only method by which one could penetrate the shapeless empirical world in the search for order.”― Edgar Allan Poe

64. “In the Heaven’s above, the angels, whispering to one another, can find, among their burning terms of love, none so devotional as that of ‘Mother.”― Edgar Allan Poe

65. “Happiness is not to be found in knowledge, but in the acquisition of knowledge.”― Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe quotes to broaden your thoughts

66. “I smiled,—for what had I to fear?”― Edgar Allan Poe

67. “There are certain themes of which the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction.”― Edgar Allan Poe

68. “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”― Edgar Allan Poe

69. “That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.”― Edgar Allan Poe

70. “A million candles have burned themselves out. Still I read on.”― Edgar Allan Poe

71. “It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.”― Edgar Allan Poe

72. “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted — Nevermore!”― Edgar Allan Poe

73. “The realities of the world affected me as visions, and as visions only, while the wild ideas of the land of dreams became, in turn,—not the material of my every-day existence–but in very deed that existence utterly and solely in itself.”― Edgar Allan Poe

74. “There are two bodies — the rudimental and the complete ; corresponding with the two conditions of the worm and the butterfly. What we call “death,” is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.”― Edgar Allan Poe

75. “Decorum — that bug-bear which deters so many from bliss until the opportunity for bliss has forever gone by.”― Edgar Allan Poe

Profound Edgar Allan Poe quotes

76. “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams.”― Edgar Allan Poe

77. “The object, Truth, or the satisfaction of the intellect, and the object, Passion, or the excitement of the heart, are, although attainable, to a certain extent, in poetry, far more readily attainable in prose.”― Edgar Allan Poe

78. “In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.”― Edgar Allan Poe

79. “Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite able to determine…”― Edgar Allan Poe

80. “…the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.”― Edgar Allan Poe

81. “Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.”― Edgar Allan Poe

82. “From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were – I have not seen As others saw – I could not bring My passions from a common spring.”― Edgar Allan Poe

83. “Love like mine can never be gotten over.”― Edgar Allan Poe

84. “No pictorial or sculptural combinations of points of human loveliness, do more than approach the living and breathing human beauty as it gladdens our daily path.”― Edgar Allan Poe

85. “The customs of the world are so many conventional follies.”― Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe quotes that will change your mind

86. “The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.”― Edgar Allan Poe

87. “For all we live to know is known.”― Edgar Allan Poe

88. “Be nothing which thou art not.”― Edgar Allan Poe

89. “We want characters – characters man – something novel – out of the way. We are wearied with everlasting sameness. Come drink! the wine will brighten your wits.”― Edgar Allen Poe

90. “To him, who still would gaze upon the glory of the summer sun, there comes, when that sun will from him part, a sullen hopelessness of heart.”― Edgar Allan Poe

91. “On the morrow he will leave me as my hopes have flown before.”― Edgar Allan Poe

92. “It would be mockery to call such dreariness heaven at all.”― Edgar Allan Poe

93. “I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief.”― Edgar Allan Poe

94. “A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul.”― Edgar Allan Poe

95. “For eyes we have no models in the remotely antique.”― Edgar Allan Poe

More Edgar Allan Poe quotes

96. “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” – Edgar Allan Poe

97. “To die laughing must be the most glorious of all glorious deaths!” – Edgar Allan Poe

98. “In criticism, I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.” – Edgar Allan Poe

99. “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.” – Edgar Allan Poe

100. “All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire.” – Edgar Allan Poe

101. “To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.” – Edgar Allan Poe

102. “If you are ever drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations.” – Edgar Allan Poe

103. “A judge at common law may be an ordinary man; a good judge of a carpet must be a genius.” – Edgar Allan Poe

104. “The memory of a past happiness is the anguish of today.” – Edgar Allan Poe

105. “Misery is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform.” – Edgar Allan Poe

106. “It is evident that we are hurrying onward to some exciting knowledge—some never-to-be-imparted secret, whose attainment is destruction.”― Edgar Allan Poe

107. “The result of law inviolate is perfection–right–negative happiness. The result of law violate is imperfection, wrong, positive pain.”― Edgar Allan Poe

108. “I am walking like a bewitched corpse, with the certainty of being eaten by the infinite, of being annulled by the only existing Absurd.”― Edgar Allan Poe

109. “Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!”― Edgar Allan Poe

110. “Reaching out to her is like drinking from a memory.”― Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes to Unveil the Dark Elegance

111. “In visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed– But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted.” — Edgar Allan Poe

112. “It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma… which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.” — Edgar Allan Poe

113. “The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis.” — Edgar Allan Poe

114. “I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life – except in hope, which is by no means bankable.” — Edgar Allan Poe

115. “I call to mind flatness and dampness; and then all is madness – the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things.” — Edgar Allan Poe

116. “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” — Edgar Allan Poe

117. “A poem in my opinion, is opposed to a work of science by having for its immediate object, pleasure, not truth.” — Edgar Allan Poe

118. “I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.” — Edgar Allan Poe

119. “The people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them.” — Edgar Allan Poe

120. “Every moment of the night Forever changing places And they put out the star-light With the breath from their pale faces.” — Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes on Echoes of Mystery

121. “Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.” — Edgar Allan Poe

122. “And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave.” — Edgar Allan Poe

123. “For years your name never passed my lips, while my soul drank in, with a delirious thirst, all that was uttered in my presence respecting you.” — Edgar Allan Poe

124. “The goodness of your true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability.” — Edgar Allan Poe

125. “Now this is the point. You fancy me a mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded.” — Edgar Allan Poe

126. “To be thoroughly conversant with Man’s heart, is to take our final lesson in the iron-clasped volume of Despair.” — Edgar Allan Poe

127. “I have been happy, though in a dream. I have been happy-and I love the theme: Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife.” — Edgar Allan Poe

128. “As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles.” — Edgar Allan Poe

129. “Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.” — Edgar Allan Poe

130. “In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.” — Edgar Allan Poe

Did these Edgar Allan Poe quotes give you any chills?

Reading about madness or death may seem strange – but perhaps even more so if you had been writing about them.

These are typically dark subjects that most folks would be all too happy to avoid.

However, having a great writer such as Edgar Allan Poe pen these subjects have made them less frightening.

In fact, his words made madness and death appear enigmatic.

Such is the talent that Poe left the world with.

If you enjoyed these Edgar Allan Poe quotes, be sure to share them with a friend today.