Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
Edgar Allan PoeTell a scoundrel, three or four times a day, that he is the pink of probity, and you make him at least the perfection of "respectability" in good earnest. On the other hand, accuse an honorable man, too petinaciously, of being a villain, and you fill him with a perverse ambition to show you that you are not altogether in the wrong.
Edgar Allan PoeIt is the nature of truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest when most superficial.
Edgar Allan Poe