Edgar Allan Poe · 38 pages
Rating: (18.8K votes)
“It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“There are few persons who have not, at some period of their lives, amused themselves in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their own minds have been attained. The occupation is often full of interest and he who attempts it for the first time is astonished by the apparently illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting-point and the goal.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“Coincidences, in general, are great stumbling-blocks in the way of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing of the theory of probabilities---that theory to which the most glorious objects of human research are indebted for the most glorious of illustration.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“I was deeply interested in the little family history which he detailed to me with all that candor which a Frenchman indulges whenever mere self is the theme.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“He impaired his vision by holding the object too close. He might see, perhaps, one or two points with unusual clearness, but in so doing he, necessarily, lost sight of the matter as a whole. Thus there is such a thing as being too profound. Truth is not always in a well. In fact, as regards the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is invariably superficial. The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“To look at a star by glances—to view it in a side-long way, by turning toward it the exterior portions of the retina (more susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the interior), is to behold the star distinctly—is to have the best appreciation of its lustre—a lustre which grows dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fully upon it. A greater number of rays actually fall upon the eye in the latter case, but in the former, there is the more refined capacity for comprehension. By undue profundity we perplex and enfeeble thought; and it is possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the firmament by a scrutiny too sustained, too concentrated, or too direct.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.”
― Theodore Roethke, quote from The Collected Poems
“The universe has no opinion of us. No matter how much we want to pretend, real life does not contain the quality of story. No arcs, no morals, no meaning. Life is what we make of it.”
― John Joseph Adams, quote from The Living Dead
“We make a pretty good team, huh?"
"The best. In fact, I was planning to do this when we got back to the Fairmont, but suddenly I don't want to wait."
"For what?"
Reaching into the pocket of his black pinstripe suit coat, he retrieved a huge square-cut diamond ring and slid it onto her left hand. "What do you say we make this partnership official?"
Tears flooded her eyes. "Do you promise to love me forever?"
His blue eyes went dark with desire and love as he nodded. "Forever and ever."
"Pinky swear?"
He smiled and wrapped his little finger around hers. "Pinky swear"
She leaned in to kiss him. "Then you've got yourself a deal.”
― Marie Force, quote from Everyone Loves a Hero
“The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God’s brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings.”
― Annie Dillard, quote from Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
“Biology
The film turns out to be about bees. It is a film about a bee center. How crap is this going to be?
An hour later
That was the best thing I have seen for ages. We made Miss Wilson rewind the bit where the two queens were having a bitch fight.”
― Louise Rennison, quote from Love Is a Many Trousered Thing
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