90 Top Quotes By Charles Baudelaire, The Author Of Les Fleurs Du Mal
Charles Baudelaire was a poet, translator, writer and art critic from France; who lived in the 19th century and produced a body of work that is considered among the finest by literature enthusiasts. Baudelaire is regarded as a great moderniser of the French literature and his biggest innovation was the introduction of the ‘prose-poetry’. The ‘prose-poetry’ style in poems went on to inspire many of the leading French poets like Stephane Malarme and Paul Verlaine among others. The book of poetry titled ‘The Flowers of Evil’ published in 1857 remains his most well-known work and is widely regarded as his greatest work. Baudelaire was also an art critic of great standing in the Parisian art press and in addition to that he was also a popular essayist. Among his works of translation; the most famous is the translated version of the works of American short story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Among his other contributions to the world of French literature is the word ‘modernity’ that he coined in order to describe the life of people in a large city. Baudelaire was a man of great depth and intellect and his life and work are also the sources of great quotes which can inspire people even today. Here are some of the selected ones.
Always be a poet, even in prose.
One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.
Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.
A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.
Remembering is only a new form of suffering.
The beautiful is always bizarre.
If the word doesn't exist, invent it; but first be sure it doesn't exist.
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.
I have cultivated my hysteria with pleasure and terror.
There are women who inspire you with the desire to conquer them and to take your pleasure of them; but this one fills you only with the desire to die slowly beneath her gaze.
Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.
Life has but one true charm: the charm of the game. But what if we’re indifferent to whether we win or lose?
Extract the eternal from the ephemeral.
What can an eternity of damnation matter to someone who has felt, if only for a second, the infinity of delight?
The Devil pulls the strings which make us dance; We find delight in the most loathsome things; Some furtherance of Hell each new day brings, And yet we feel no horror in that rank advance.
I am a cemetery by the moon unblessed.
I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust.
A multitude of small delights constitute happiness
Even when she walks one would believe that she dances.
You walk on corpses, beauty, undismayed.
Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art.
He who looks through an open window sees fewer things than he who looks through a closed window.
The Poet is a kinsman in the clouds Who scoffs at archers, loves a stormy day; But on the ground, among the hooting crowds, He cannot walk, his wings are in the way.
My heart is lost; the beasts have eaten it.
I have felt the wind on the wing of madness.
I set out to discover the why of it, and to transform my pleasure into knowledge.
As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.
I should like the fields tinged with red, the rivers yellow and the trees painted blue. Nature has no imagination.
Let us beware of common folk, common sense, sentiment, inspiration, and the obvious.
The insatiable thirst for everything which lies beyond, & which life reveals is the most living proof of our immortality.
