Charles Baudelaire quotes - page 5

There is in the word, in the logos, something sacred which forbids us to gamble with it. To handle a language skilfuly is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery. (Charles Baudelaire)
Passion I hate, a spirit does me wrong. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
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. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
But the true voyagers are only those who leave Just to be leaving; hearts light, like balloons, They never turn aside from their fatality And without knowing why they always say: "Let's go! View quote
Charles Baudelaire
That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity – that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
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. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
A multitude of small delights constitute happiness. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
It is unfortunately very true that, without leisure and money, love can be no more than an orgy of the common man. Instead of being a sudden impulse full of ardor and reverie, it becomes a distastefully utilitarian affair. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
The lover of life makes the whole world into his family, just as the lover of the fair sex creates his from all the lovely women he has found, from those that could be found, and those who are impossible to find. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
Everything for me becomes allegory. (Charles Baudelaire)
There is no such thing as a long piece of work, except one that you dare not start. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
We revel in the laxness of the path we take. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
The man who says his evening prayer is a captain posting his sentinels. He can sleep. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This transitory fugitive element, which is constantly changing, must not be despised or neglected. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
I set out to discover the why of it, and to transform my pleasure into knowledge. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
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. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
In our corruption we perceive beauties unrevealed to ancient times. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, be endlessly drunk. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
It is at despair at not being able to be noble and beautiful by natural means that we have made up our faces so strangely. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
Forest, I fear you! In my ruined heart your roaring wakens the same agony as in cathedrals when the organ moans and from the depths I hear that I am damned. (Charles Baudelaire)
The unique and supreme voluptuousness of love lies in the certainty of committing evil. And men and women know from birth that in evil is found all sensual delight. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
Above my cradle loomed the bookcase where/ Latin ashes and the dust of Greece/ mingled with novels, history, and verse/ in one dark Babel. I was folio-high/ when I first heard the voices. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
There is no more steely barb than that of the Infinite. View quote
Charles Baudelaire
He possessed the logic of all good intentions and a knowledge of all the tricks of his trade, and yet he never succeeded at anything, because he believed too much in the impossible. Surprising? Why so? He was forever in the act of conceiving it! View quote
Charles Baudelaire