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About this quote

What does it mean?
Poe argues that nearing death makes people uniquely sensitive to harms done against kindness.
In plain terms
Dying people feel offenses against charity as crimes.
What can you take from it?
Charity violations are deeply felt near death.

Where it applies

  • end of life
  • confession
  • moral reckoning

Putting it to work

  • apologizing
  • practicing kindness
  • self reflection

Questions to consider

  • Do we ignore kindness until it is lost?
  • What crimes matter most at the end?

Another view

Not everyone may feel this way on their deathbed.

More from Edgar Allan Poe

  1. 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 t…

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  2. If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize at one effort the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment, the opportunity is h…

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  3. If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

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