The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age, since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information by throwing in the reader's way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter, peradventure interspersed.
Edgar Allan PoeMen have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligenceโ whether much that is gloriousโ whether all that is profoundโ does not spring from disease of thoughtโ from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.
Edgar Allan PoeIf the propositions of this Discourse are tenable, the "state of progressive collapse" is precisely that state in which alone we are warranted in considering All Things.
Edgar Allan Poe