Edgar Allan Poe

Suky Snobbs

To be good, a double entendre should be at least good English when viewed on either side. Now we may lay by a piece of money — but we lie by a wife.

The value of a conundrum is in exact proportion to the extent of its demerit, and that it is only positively good when it is outrageously and scandalously absurd.

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human progress is an illusion, that man is not an animal that can be perfected, but an animal that can be improved.

The 99th part of literature is absolute rubbish. The one hundredth part is not so bad. The one hundredth part of that is worth reading.

I am a good deal of a cynic, and have a good deal of what the world calls misanthropy. But I am not a misanthrope.

I have been in love with a great many women. I have never been in love with a man.

I have no belief in the perfectibility of human nature.

I am not mad; I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.

I intend to be the first American author of any note.

The true genius is a man who can say what he likes without being understood.

I am a man of the world, and have seen much of its evil. I have also seen something of its good.

I am a Virginian, and have a natural right to be a gentleman.

That man is a fool who cannot be a knave when he pleases.

I have made up my mind to get rid of my wife. I have a plan for it.

I have been guilty of many follies, but I have never been guilty of a great crime.

The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive.

I have a profound contempt for the rabble.

I am a man of the world, and have seen much of its evil. I have also seen something of its good. But I have never seen anything so good as a good wife.

I have no pleasure in the world but my books.