Edgar Allan Poe — "I have no faith in any system of education that does not cultivate the imaginati…"

"To be thoroughly conversant with at least one branch of human knowledge is a desideratum of the first importance."

"I have a profound contempt for the opinions of mankind."

"I have... for the metaphysical poets [William Wordsworth, etc.], as poets, the most sovereign contempt. That they have followers proves nothing."

"The author avers upon his word of honor that in commencing this work he loads a pistol, and places it upon the table."

"The waggish author of 'The New Mirror' is, I believe, the first who has openly maintained the doctrine that the great end of a writer is to get money."