After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.
Interpretation
Deep thoughts about God and the soul often mirror simple feelings.
Edgar Allan Poe suggests that when we deeply contemplate complex subjects like God and the soul, we can arrive at insights that are surprisingly similar to basic emotional responses. This convergence of profound thought and simple sentiment highlights the intricate relationship between deep philosophical reflection and the human experience.
In practice
In a speech about the nature of belief, this quote can illustrate the complexity of faith.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
Between the dreams of night and day there is not so great a difference.
Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.
The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil.
Since God often sends us inspirations by means of His angels, we should frequently return our aspirations to him by means of the same messengers.
My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.
Returning to the source is serenity.
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