Last Updated: January 1, 2024 by Quote.cc Team

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.

Edgar Allan Poe, born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American writer, editor, and literary critic, best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. Poe is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story.

Poe is also considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and contributed significantly to the emerging genre of science fiction. Some of his most famous works include “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

His writing style is characterized by its macabre and Gothic tones, exploring themes of death, decay, and madness, often reflecting his own tumultuous and tragic life. Despite his contemporary fame, Poe struggled financially and was plagued by personal tragedies, including the loss of his beloved wife, Virginia.

Poe’s death on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore remains shrouded in mystery, much like the stories he penned. Today, Edgar Allan Poe is celebrated as a master of horror and a pioneer of modern storytelling, whose works continue to captivate and terrify readers around the world.

Here are 35 Edgar Allan Poe quotes for writers and about writing.

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

“I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity.” – Edgar Allan Poe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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