Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” was originally published in 1843.
The novel follows an unknown narrator who loves animals but ultimately abuses them as he spirals into drinking and violence.
Let’s have a look at some of the best quotes from The Black Cat novel.
Table of Contents
The Black Cat Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe
“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“Yet mad I am not…and very surely do I not dream.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“I knew myself no longer.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
Other Book Quotes: From the Corner of His Eye Quotes by Dean Koontz and The Giver Quotes by Lois Lowry
Quotes from The Black Cat
“I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them.This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; – hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; – hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; – hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin – a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it – if such a thing were possible – even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
Best The Black Cat Quotes
“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart – one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“In speaking of his [the cat] intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not – and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would un-burthen my soul.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe (quote from The Black Cat).
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