Edgar Allan Poe

I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it. ”

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty. ”

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

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.' ”

I have no faith in human perfectability. 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. ”

The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world. ”

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this - that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made - not to understand - but to feel - as crime. ”

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led. ”

All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry. ”