Edgar Allan Poe

“Where was your all-loving god when he was really needed?”

“Leave my loneliness unbroken”

“You call it hope — that fire of fire!It is but agony of desire.”

“The principle of vis inertiae (...) seems to be identical in physics and metaphysics. It is not more true in the former, that a large body is with more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, and that its subsequent momentum is commensurate with this difficulty, than it is, in the latter, that intellects of the vaster capacity, while more forcible, more constant, and more eventful in their movements than those of inferior grade, are yet the less readily moved, and more embarrassed, and full of hesitation in the first few steps of their progress”

“Ero costretto a limitarmi a una conclusione abbastanza insoddisfacente cioè, che certamente esistono combinazioni di oggetti semplicissimi, naturali fino alla banalità, che hanno il potere di impressionarci, ma che, nello stesso tempo, tale potere resta per noi non analizzabile, superiore al potere della nostra mente.”

“...Alnına konsun bu öpüş!Ve, şimdi senden ayrılırken,İtiraf edeyim ki-Günlerimi bir düşSayarken yanılmıyorsun;Ama, umut gitmişse uzaklaraBir gece ya da bir günBir görüntüde ya da bir şeyde olmaksızınFark eder mi bu yüzden?Bütün gördüğümüz ve göründüğümüzYalnızca bir düş içinde bir düş.”

“In death - no! even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man. Arousing from the most profound slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream. Yet in a second afterward, (so frail may that web have been) we remember not that we have dreamed.”

“Düş görmek bir mutluluktur.”

“Y puesto que por persona entendemos una esencia inteligente dotada de razón, y el pensar siempre va acompañado por una conciencia, ella es la que nos hace ser eso que llamamos nosotros mismos, distinguiéndonos, en consecuencia, de los otros serés que piensan y confiriéndonos nuestra identidad personal.”

“Me gustaría que mi escritura fuera tan misteriosa como un gato”

“The faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis. Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by a the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers. In draughts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished, and the mere attention being left comparatively unemployed, what advantages are obtained by either party are obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract, let us suppose a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here the victory can be decided (the players being at all equal) only by some recherché movement, the result of some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a glance, the sole methods (sometime indeed absurdly simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation.”

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

“The most expuisite beauty has strangeness in its proportions..." Ligeia”

“There are surely other worlds than this - other thoughts than the thoughts of the multitude - other speculations than the speculations of the sophist. Who then shall call thy conduct into question? who blame thee for thy visionary hours, or denounce those occupations as a wasting away of life, which were but the overflowings of thine everlasting energies?”

“There are few persons, even among the calmest thinkers, who have not occasionally been startled into a vague yet thrilling half credence in the supernatural, by coincidences of so seemingly marvellous a character that, as mere coincidences, the intellect has been unable to receive them.”

“To die laughing must be the most glorious of all glorious deaths!”

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

“How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness?—from the covenant of peace a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born.”

“Es baidos no nākotnes, pareizāk sakot, - no tā, ko tā nesīs. Nodrebu, domādams, ka ikviens, pat visnenozīmīgākais notikums var manas dvēseles satraukumu vērst neizturamu. Īstenībā es nebaidos no briesmām, bet no šausmām, ko tās izraisa. Savā nožēlojamā, drosmi paralizējošā stāvoklī jūtu, ka agrāk vai vēlāk pienāks diena, kad cīņā ar nepielūdzamo rēgu- BAILĒM, būs jāatsakās ne vien no dzīves, bet arī no saprāta.”

“Nenormālas jau savā būtībā- manas jūtas nekad nenāca no sirds, bet vienmēr no prāta.”

“Īstenība man likās kā maldu tēls, vienīgi maldu tēls, bet sapņu valstības rēgainie priekšstati savukārt kļuva par manas esības pamatu- tikai šinī valstībā nedalāmi ritēja mana dzīve.”

“Vai nu atmiņas par vakardienas laimi liek mums ciest šodien, vai arī šīsdienas ciešanu sakne meklējama pāri plūstošā priekā, kas varētu būt bijis.”

“Nelaimei ir daudz seju. Ļaužu izmisumam ir daudzi veidi. Līdzīgi varavīksnei, tas liecas pāri plašajam apvārsnim, un tā veidi ir tikpat dažādi kā šī loka krāsas- tikpat izšķirīgas un tomēr saplūdušas vienotā mirdzumā. Liecas pāri plašajam apvārsnim kā varavīksne! Kā gan varēja gadīties, ka es minēju skaisto, lai izskaidrotu pretīgo, izvēlējos miera vēstnesi par salīdzinājumu postam.? Bet, tāpat kā ētiskos secinājumos ļaunums ir labā sekas, tā arī no prieka dzimst bēdas.”

“At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the prison. I struggled no more, but the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final scream of despair. I felt that I tottered upon the brink -- I averted my eyes --”

“I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.I heard many things in hell.”

“That single thought is enough. The impulse increases to a wish, the wish to a desire, the desire to an uncontrollable longing, and the longing (to the deep regret and mortification of the speaker, and in defiance of all consequences,) is indulged.”

“But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.’Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.”

“It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. It's pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the note orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observes that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as in confessed revery or meditation”

“Un mare număr de hîrţoage şi de instrumente muzicale zăceau împrăştiate pe jos, fără să izbuteascăînsă a da viaţă decorului. Simţeam că respir o atmosferă încărcată de tristeţe. O jale adîncă, amară şi de nelecuit plutea în aerul acela care învăluia totul şi pătrundea pretutindeni.”

“That motley drama—oh, be sure It shall not be forgot!With its Phantom chased for evermore By a crowd that seize it not,Through a circle that ever returneth in To the self-same spot,And much of Madness, and more of Sin, And Horror the soul of the plot.”

“A enorme multiplicação de livros, de todos os ramos do conhecimento, é um dos maiores males de nossa época.”

“Para sermos felizes até certo ponto é preciso que tenhamos sofrido até o mesmo ponto.”

“Tudo o que vemos ou parecemos / não passa de um sonho dentro de um sonho.”

“The teeth!—the teeth!—they were here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development.”

“To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume, utterly impossible; yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to the most hideous aspect of death.”

“To-day I wear these chains, and am HERE. To-morrow I shall be fetterless!--BUT WHERE?”

“... tan seguro estoy de que mi alma existe como de que la perversidad es uno de los impulsos primordiales del corazón humano, una de las facultades primarias indivisibles, uno de esos sentimientos que dirigen el carácter del hombre.”

“She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee. And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He, passionate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his Art; she a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee; all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn; loving and cherishing all things; hating only the Art which was her rival;”

“Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore —Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore.”

“In the internal decoration, if not in the external architecture of their residences, the English are supreme. The Italians have but little sentiment beyond marbles and colors. In France, meliora probant, deteriora sequuntur -- the people are too much a race of gadabouts to maintain those household proprieties of which, indeed, they have a delicate appreciation, or at least the elements of a proper sense. The Chinese and most of the Eastern races have a warm but inappropriate fancy. The Scotch are poor decorists. The Dutch have, perhaps, an indeterminate idea that a curtain is not a cabbage. In Spain, they are all curtains -- a nation of hangmen. The Russians do not furnish. The Hottentots and Kickapoos are very well in their way. The Yankees alone are preposterous.”

“I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief.”

“I was cautious in what I said before the young lady; for I could not be sure that she was sane; and, in fact, there was a certain restless brilliancy about her eyes that half led me to imagine she was not.”

“Hay algo en el generoso y abnegado amor de un animal que llega directamente al corazón de aquel que con frecuencia a probado la falsa amistad y la frágil fidelidad del hombre".”

“And, though my faith be broken, And, though my heart be broken,Here is a ring, as tokenThat I am happy now!”

“Yet if Hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.”

“And rays of truth you cannot seeAre flashing thro' Eternity--”

“For all we live to know is known.”

“Thine image and--a name--a name!Two separate--yet most intimate things.”

“And, when the friendly sunshine smil'd, / And she would mark the opening skies, / I saw no Heaven--but in her eyes.”

“For passion must, with youth, expire.”