Edgar Allan Poe

"And because our reason violently deters us from the brink, therefore, do we the more impetuously approach it. There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him, who shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a plunge. To indulge for a moment, in any attempt at thought, is to be inevitably lost; for reflection but urges us to forbear, and therefore it is, I say, that we cannot. If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge, and are destroyed."

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Source: Edgar Allan Poe (2013). “Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Illustrated By Arthur Rackham”, p.15, Read Books Ltd

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Poet, Writer

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer known for his macabre tales and poetry, particularly 'The Raven' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'

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Edgar Allan Poe Poet, Writer

"I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom."

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