Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

Here is a collection of great quotes from Edgar Allan Poe's poems and short stories. You can learn more about the author on our Edgar Allan Poe page.

"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." - "The Raven"

"Here I opened wide the door;-— Darkness there, and nothing more." - "The Raven"

"I had walled the monster up within the tomb!" - "The Black Cat"

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." - quote from a Poe letter.

"For months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat." - "The Black Cat"


"For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams" - "Annabel Lee"

"I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." - "The Tell-Tale Heart

"I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge." - quotes from a Poe letter.

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;" - "The Raven"


"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream." - "A Dream Within a Dream"

"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?" - "The Premature Burial"

"The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out," - "The Sleeper"

"Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour" - "Bells"

"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" - "The Masque of the Red Death"


"It writhes!-it writhes!-with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued. - "The Conqueror Worm"

"I was never really insane, except on occasions where my heart was touched." - quote from a Poe letter to Mrs. Maria Clemm

"These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll—
As the lavas that restlessly roll" - "Ulalume"