--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There are some secrets which do not…" description: "\"There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors, and looking ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/76c/edgar-allan-poe-315_accounts_there-are-some-secrets-which-do-not-perm_3102637.jpg" --- # There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to… ![“There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors, and looking them piteously in the eyes - die with despair of heart and convulsion of throat, on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer…” quote by Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/76c/edgar-allan-poe-315_accounts_there-are-some-secrets-which-do-not-perm_3102637.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/76c/edgar-allan-poe-315_accounts_there-are-some-secrets-which-do-not-perm_3102637.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/76c/edgar-allan-poe-315_accounts_there-are-some-secrets-which-do-not-perm_3102637.jpg) > “There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors, and looking them piteously in the eyes - die with despair of heart and convulsion of throat, on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer themselves to be revealed. Now and then, alas, the conscience of man takes up a burden so heavy in horror that it can be thrown down only into the grave. And thus the essence of all crime is undivulged.” [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Secrets that remain hidden cause profound inner torment, shaping human conscience and crime. **In simple terms:** Hidden truths cause deep suffering. Key Takeaway Consider the cost of keeping secrets. Themes secrecy guilt psychology Mood somber thoughtful Type literary psychological When to use this quote - personal relationships - legal investigations - mental health Key Concepts human conscience mystery crime Questions to Reflect On - What secrets weigh on you? - When is silence justified? A Different Perspective Not all secrets are harmful; some protect. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Accounts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accounts/) [Alas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alas/) [Bed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bed/) [Burden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/burden/) [Conscience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conscience/) [Crime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crime/) [Crime Undivulged](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crime-undivulged-5384077/) [Despair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/despair/) [Dies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dies/) [Essence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/essence/) [Eye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eye/) [Ghostly Confessors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ghostly-confessors-954819/) [Graves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/graves/) [Hands](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hands/) [Heart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heart/) [Heavy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heavy/) [Horror](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/horror/) [Men](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men/) [Mysteries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mysteries/) [Mysteries Suffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mysteries-suffer-954818/) [Mystery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mystery/) [Now and then](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/now-and-then/) [Old man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/old-man/) [Permit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/permit/) [Secret](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/secret/) [Secrets](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/secrets/) [Suffering](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/suffering/) [Throat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/throat/) [Thrown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thrown/) ## Related quotes > [“There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/there-are-some-secrets-which-do-not-permit-themselves-to-be-told-men/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors ... on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/men-die-nightly-in-their-beds-wringing-the-hands-of-ghostly/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [Mysteries force a man to think, and so injure his health.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/mysteries-force-a-man-to-think-and-so-injure-his-health/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [It is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/it-is-clear-that-a-poem-may-be-improperly-brief-undue-brevity/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [I don't have a whole bunch of literary connections. I don't write reviews or attend writer's conferences. I'm kind of shy and don't want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susanna-kaysen/i-don-t-have-a-whole-bunch-of-literary-connections-i-don-t-write/) [Susanna Kaysen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susanna-kaysen/) > [Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-roethke/those-who-are-willing-to-be-vulnerable-move-among-mysteries/) [Theodore Roethke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-roethke/) > [Life is a luminous pause between two mysteries that are yet one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-jung/life-is-a-luminous-pause-between-two-mysteries-that-are-yet-one/) [Carl Jung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-jung/) > [“...spirituality alone will not take a man far in the Mysteries; he must have intellectual powers as well.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dion-fortune/spirituality-alone-will-not-take-a-man-far-in-the-mysteries-he-must/) [Dion Fortune](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dion-fortune/) > [Every reader, I suspect, has a book like this somewhere in his or her past, a book that seemed to hold within it, at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/every-reader-i-suspect-has-a-book-like-this-somewhere-in-his-or-her/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [I don't believe in destroying GOOD mysteries or adding to BAD reputations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-balance/i-don-t-believe-in-destroying-good-mysteries-or-adding-to-bad/) [John Balance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-balance/) > [I have a sense of them being Easter religions, for some reason. Christianity, of course, is a mystery religion, too, and I believe that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/quentin-s-crisp/i-have-a-sense-of-them-being-easter-religions-for-some-reason/) [Quentin S. Crisp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/quentin-s-crisp/) > [My husband asked me once why I read so many mysteries, and part of it is just intellectual, part of it is the joy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diana-gabaldon/my-husband-asked-me-once-why-i-read-so-many-mysteries-and-part-of-it/) [Diana Gabaldon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diana-gabaldon/) > [“There are some mysteries of the universe that ought to remain mysteries.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-hill/there-are-some-mysteries-of-the-universe-that-ought-to-remain/) [Nathan Hill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-hill/) > [If you ask me to tell you anything about the nature of what lies beyond the phaneron… my answer is “How should I know?”……](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-gardner/if-you-ask-me-to-tell-you-anything-about-the-nature-of-what-lies/) [Martin Gardner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-gardner/) > [“Maybe it's better not to know some things. Mysteries make us tick more than just about anything else.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-carter-eaton/maybe-it-s-better-not-to-know-some-things-mysteries-make-us-tick-more/) [Jason Carter Eaton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-carter-eaton/) ## More by Edgar Allan Poe > [“From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were—I have not seen As others saw—I could not bring My passions from a common…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/from-childhood-s-hour-i-have-not-been-as-others-were-i-have-not-seen/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/there-is-no-passion-in-nature-so-demoniacally-impatient-as-that-of/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/to-vilify-a-great-man-is-the-readiest-way-in-which-a-little-man-can/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/a-skillful-literary-artist-has-constructed-a-tale-if-wise-he-has-not/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“For eyes we have no models in the remotely antique.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/for-eyes-we-have-no-models-in-the-remotely-antique/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/during-the-whole-of-a-dull-dark-and-soundless-day-in-the-autumn-of/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/those-who-dream-by-day-are-cognizant-of-many-things-that-escape-those/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment—that of looking down within the tarn—had been to deepen the first singular…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/i-have-said-that-the-sole-effect-of-my-somewhat-childish-experiment/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [And all my days are trances, And all my nightly dreams Are where thy dark eye glances, And where thy footstep gleams-- In what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/and-all-my-days-are-trances-and-all-my-nightly-dreams-are-where-thy/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“Other friends have flown before — On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.” Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/other-friends-have-flown-before-on-the-morrow-he-will-leave-me-as-my/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/to-the-right-and-left-as-far-as-the-eye-could-reach-there-lay/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors ... on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/men-die-nightly-in-their-beds-wringing-the-hands-of-ghostly/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [And the Raven, never flitting, Still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas Just above my chamber door; And his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/and-the-raven-never-flitting-still-is-sitting-still-is-sitting-on-the/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/i-was-forced-to-fall-back-upon-the-unsatisfactory-conclusion-that/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [“For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but i feel the bright…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/for-the-moon-never-beams-without-bringing-me-dreams-of-the-beautiful/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) [Explore all 615 Edgar Allan Poe quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) ## More Accounts quotes > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/think-of-these-things-whence-you-came-where-you-are-going-and-to-whom/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/believing-with-you-that-religion-is-a-matter-which-lies-solely/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [There is nothing that we can properly call our own but our time, and yet everybody fools us out of it who has a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seneca-the-younger/there-is-nothing-that-we-can-properly-call-our-own-but-our-time-and/) [Seneca the Younger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seneca-the-younger/) > [The Hindus have a peculiar slovenliness in business matters, not being sufficiently methodical and strict in keeping accounts etc.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/the-hindus-have-a-peculiar-slovenliness-in-business-matters-not-being/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [With the Truman book, I wrote the entire account of his experiences in World War I before going over to Europe to follow his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-mccullough/with-the-truman-book-i-wrote-the-entire-account-of-his-experiences-in/) [David McCullough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-mccullough/) > [A great read; an exciting, frightening account of organized crime today. 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