El demonio de la perversidad es un relato corto del escritor estadounidense Edgar Allan Poe del ano 1845. La obra trata esencialmente de los impulsos autodestructivos que mueven al narrador, impulsos que el autor identifica con el "demonio de la perversidad." El narrador describe este principio como un agente espiritual que obliga a las personas a hacer cosas por el mero hecho de que no deberian hacerlas. La frase es hoy corriente en lengua inglesa, y se considera que este autor pudo estar en el origen de la misma. We have a task before us which must be speedily performed. We know that it will be ruinous to make delay. The most important crisis of our life calls, trumpet-tongued, for immediate energy and action. ... It must, it shall be undertaken to-day, and yet we put it off until to-morrow, and why? There is no answer, except that we feel perverse, using the word with no comprehension of the principle. ... Then] The clock strikes, and is the knell of our welfare. At the same time, it is the chanticleer-note to the ghost that has so long overawed us. It flies-disappears-we are free. The old energy returns. We will labor now. Alas, it is too late "