Authentic Edgar Allan Poe Quotes Haunt You For Life

Here is my selection of authentic Edgar Allan Poe quotes that linked to credible sources.

He is best known for his poetry and short stories of horror and mystery, including “The Raven“, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Cask of Amontillado“.

In 1827, Poe published his first book titled, “Tamerlane and Other Poems“.

His second book “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems” was published in 1829.

In 1841, Poe wrote detective fiction, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue“.

His poem “The Raven” was hailed as a literary sensation.

It is still considered one of the best of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing career.

I have painstakingly selected out some of his many meaningful, thought-provoking quotes that you can use in your daily conversations or work.

Or share them with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers.

Not just any written work from his books. That’s the reason, why I do not include any line from his popular poem “The Raven“.

Beware: There are many quotes wrongly attributed to Edgar Allan Poe found in websites and also those published books.

There are even fake Poe quotes around.

The next time before you use or share any quote, make sure you get it from a reliable source, like this site.

Authentic Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

All the Edgar Allan Poe quotes below are verified authentic and they are all linked to all his credible sources.

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

(The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket By Edgar Allan Poe, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838, Ch. XII, P. 109) source

(The quote is also found here and here.)

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

(The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With a Selection of His Sketches And Reviews, London: Ward, Lock, And Tyler, 1866, A Dream within a Dream, P. 54)

(The quote is also found in: The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Poems, A Dream Within a Dream,, P. 967) source

“Sound loves to revel in a summer night.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With a Selection of His Sketches And Reviews, London: Ward, Lock, And Tyler, Warwick House, 1866, Al Aaraaf, Part II, P. 95)

(The quote is also found in: The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Poems Written In Youth, Al Aaraaf, Part II, P. 998 ) source

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

(The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With a Selection of His Sketches And Reviews, London: Ward, Lock, And Tyler, Warwick House, 1866, To—, P. 67)

(The quote is also found in: The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Poems Written In Youth, To—, P. 975) source

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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The System Of Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether, P. 310) source

(The quote is also found in: The Collected Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1992, Prose, The System Of Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether, P. 310) source

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

(The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I, New York: W. J. Widdleton, New York: Harper Brothers, 1849, Mesmeric Revelation, P. 119) source

(The quote is also found in: The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe By Edgar Allan Poe, New York: Race Point Publishing, 2014, Tales, Mesmeric Revelation, P. 49) source

“All things are either good or bad by comparison.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I, New York: W. J. Widdleton, New York: Harper Brothers, 1849, Mesmeric Revelation, P. 119) source

(The quote is also found in: Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories And Poems, Edited By Andrew Barger, Bottletree Books LLC, 2008, Mesmeric Revelation, P. 329)

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

(The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, With A Memoir By Rufus Wilmot Griswold And Notices Of His Life And Genius By N. P. Wilis And J. R. Lowell, In Four Volumes, III. The literati, New York: Redfield, 1857, Marginalia, P. 483) source

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Volume 3, New York: W. J. Widdleton, 1849, Marginalia, P. 483) source

(Another source of the quote is found here.)

“Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought,…” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Poems Written In Youth, To—, P. 951) source

(The quote is also found in: Complete Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Edited By Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Urbana Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000, To—[B], P. 407) source

“How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings!” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The United States Magazine And Democratic Review, Volume XV, November 1844, Marginalia, P. 490) source

(The quote is also found: Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews, New York: The Library Of America, 1984, Articles and Marginalia, November 1844, Marginalia, P. 1322) source

“I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends will call it.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Literati: Some Honest Opinions About Autorial Merits And Demerits With Occasional Words Of Personality, Together Marginalia, Suggestions, And Essays By Edgar Allan Poe, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850, Marginalia, LXXXVIII, P. 525) source

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. III The Literati, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1857,Marginalia, LXXXVIII, P. 525)

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

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Volume 3, New York: W. J. Widdleton, 1849, Marginalia, CXXXIII, P. 542) source

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

(The Letters Of Edgar Allan Poe, Edited by John Ward Ostrom, New York: The Gordian Press, 1966, III, Philadelphia, From Weissnichtwo To Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1837 – June 1840, 80 To J. Beauchamp Jones, Philadelphia, August 8, 1839, P. 109) source

(The quote in is also found in: The Letters Of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948, P. 114, Edgar Allan Poe To J. Beauchamp Jones, Philadelphia, August 8, 1839, P. 114) source

“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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The Premature Burial, P. 258) source

(The quote is also found in:The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I Tales, New York: J. S. Redfield,1857, The Premature Burial, P. 326) source

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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The Masque of the Red Death, P. 272) source

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I Tales, New York: J. S. Redfield,1857, The Masque of the Red Death, P. 343) source

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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, Eleonora, P. 446) source

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I Tales, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1857, Eleonora, P. 446) source

“I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Complete Poetical Works Of Edgar Allan Poe: With a Selection of His Sketches And Reviews, London: Ward, Lock , And Tyler, 1866, An Essay On The Poetic Principle, P. 9) source

(The quote is also found in: Poems And Essays On Poetry By Edgar Allan Poe, Edited And An Introduction By Charles Hubert Sisson, New York: Routledge, 2003, Essays on Poetry, The Poetic Principle, P. 93) source

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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The Black Cat, P. 225) source

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Vol. I Tales, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1857, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, Harry Clarke, Courier Corporation, 2008, P. 284) source

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

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, Edited By John H. Ingram, Volume III, Poems And Essays, Including Eureka, Marginalia Etc. Etc, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1883, Marginalia, C. Little Men, P. 397) source

“Imitators are not necessarily unoriginal, except at the exact points of the imitation.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The quote is also found in: The Works Of The Late Edgar Allan Poe, In Four Volumes, Volume 3, The Literati, New York: Redfield, 1857, Marginalia, CXXII, P. 539) source

“…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

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The Mystery of Maria Roget, A Sequel to “The Murders in The Rue Morgue”, P. 191) source

(The quote is also found in: Complete Stories And Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, New York: Doubleday Publishing, 2012, The Mystery of Marie Roget, P. 48) source

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

(The quote is also found in: The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. IX, New York: Cosimo, Inc., 2009, Marginalia, CLXIX, P. 307)

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

(The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Edition, Edited By Stuart Levine and Susan Levine, Urbana & Chicago: University Of Illinois Press, 1990, 3. The Death Of A Beautiful Woman, P. 62) source

“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

(The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe, Edited By John H. Ingram, Vol. III, Poems And Essays, Including Eureka, Marginalia, Etc, Etc, Edinburgh: Adam And Charles Black, 1875, Marginalia, CLX, Past And Present, P.417) source

“…that what you mistake for madness is but an over acuteness of the senses.” – Edgar Allan Poe

(The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: The Modern Library, 1938, Tales, The Tell-Tale Heart, P. 305) source

(The quote is also found in: Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Poetry And Tales, Edited By James M. Hutchison, Canada: Broadview Press, 2012, P. 314) source

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

(Edgar Allan Poe: Essays And Reviews, New York: The Library Of America, 1984, The Philosophy Of Composition, P. 17) source

(The quote is also found in: The Fall Of The House Of Usher: And Other Tales And Prose Writings Of Edgar Poe, Selected and Edited By Ernest Rhys, London: Walter Scott, 1889, Essays, Reviews And Marginalia, The Philosophy Of Composition, P. 226) source