The Tell-Tale Heart

have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over acuteness of the senses?

Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!

. Madmen know nothing.

would a madman have been so wise as this?

All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.

. But anything was better than this agony!

Madmen know nothing.

It was not a groan of pain or of grief –oh, no! –it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.

And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel –although he neither saw nor heard –to feel the presence of my head within the room

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded –with what caution –with what foresight –with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him