Quote#Courage
And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but…
Quote byEdgar Allan Poe · 1809–1849
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Tell-Tale Heart (1843).
English (original)
And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? -- now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
— Edgar Allan Poe
More from Edgar Allan Poe
O, human love! thou spirit given, On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!
By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule —
If I could dwell Where Israfel Hath dwelt, and he where I, He might not sing so wildly well A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell
A dark unfathom'd tide Of interminable pride — A mystery, and a dream, Should my early life seem.
Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! — An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young — A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
The happiest day — the happiest hour My sear'd and blighted heart hath known, The highest hope of pride and power, I feel hath flown.