Analyzing Quotes

“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.” - Edgar Allen Poe

I always wondered how such a clever quote could be meaning that this man was a fool. How? How could anyone ever perceive a mind such as this to be foolish?

A thought about this a lot as I got older, and I must admit the answer came to me after much deliberation. It did not come on a dreary, dark, and stormy night, as most of Poe's stories imply that most deliberation takes place. Rather, it happened at 4:30 pm. A sunny day, one of the warmest we had had in quite some time.

The answer was such as this. Knowledge does not mean wisdom, and wisdom only comes with experience.

I knew the bare basics of Poe's life, the tragedy that it was, and was able to recognize it in many of his works. However, this simple sentence brought me perhaps more insight into the mans mind than many of his works had. And for this simple reason:

Edgar Allen Poe believed that he had lived his life foolishly.

I knew that his mother died very tragically from tuberculosis when he was a child. I assume that this would have affected him deeply and given him a perceived sense on how important time with loved ones is.

Then, his wife died very shortly after their marriage. She, too, died from tuberculosis. This might have made him feel rather foolish as to why he had not savored his time with her more before she died. This would also affect many of his works, which contained the theme of tuberculosis and the theme of being haunted by something's death.

While a very depressed person, Poe retained much of his wit, amazing talent for writing, and sense of irony. Wherever he looked in his life, Poe must have seen this irony, for it is contained in every work of his. The most common theme of irony is someone bringing about their own downfall or suffering. Did Poe blame himself for what happened to his mother and wife?

It would not be all that unsurprising, if he had. Blaming oneself for the death of loved ones is common today, and likely has been for most of human history. By not savoring his time with his loved ones, or at least feeling that he had not savored his time with them, he would have felt that he had brought his own grief upon himself. By thinking this in act of foolishness, he would have labeled himself, a brilliant man, a fool.

(This is my personal interpretation. If you have another interpretation of this quote, or disagree, please tell me what it is or how, I would love to hear it!)