“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,”
Stanza 1.
The Raven (1844)
Context: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
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Edgar Allan Poe 126
American author, poet, editor and literary critic 1809–1849Related quotes

“I ponder over ideas, many and weighty, and even over things which can never come to pass.”
The Book of My Life (1930), Ch. 13
Context: I am cold of heart, warm of brain, and given to never-ending meditation; I ponder over ideas, many and weighty, and even over things which can never come to pass.

Source: The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science

“It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight.”
"The God in the Bowl" (1952)
Context: Arus the watchman grasped his crossbow with shaky hands, and he felt beads of clammy perspiration on his skin as he stared at the unlovely corpse sprawling on the polished floor before him. It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight.

Love is Enough (1872), Song V: Through the Trouble and Tangle

“Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.”
Pt. I, The Unknowable; Ch. V, The Reconciliation
First Principles (1862)

1960s, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964)
Context: This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Source: The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 2: "The Awakening of Asia" This passage uses phrases from his earlier work The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Context: It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression. St. Vincent De Paul cautioned his disciples to deport themselves so that the poor "will forgive them the bread you give them."