49 quotes
French poet and critic (1821–1867)
“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”
"What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters."
on Life
"Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immovable."
on Art
"The mainspring of genius is curiosity."
on Wisdom
"To be wicked is never excusable, but there is some merit in knowing that you are; the most irreparable of vices is to do evil from stupidity."
"The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist."
on Philosophy
"He who looks through an open window sees fewer things than he who looks through a closed window."
on Perception
"Whether you come from heaven or hell, what does it matter, O Beauty!"
"I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy."
"It is the hour to be drunken! to escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish."
"It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree."
on Communication
"Life has but one true charm: the charm of the game. But what if we’re indifferent to whether we win or lose?"
"The old Paris is no more (the form of a city changes faster, alas! than a mortal's heart)."
"The mixture of the grotesque and the tragic is agreeable to the spirit, as are discords to the jaded ear."
"For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation."
on Economy
"The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before being vanquished."
"Time is an avid gambler who has no need to cheat to win every time."
on Time
"There is no such thing as a long piece of work except one that you dare not start."
on Motivation
"The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries with terror before being defeated."
"Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty."
"There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness."
