Dancing is poetry with arms and legs. Charles Baudelaire More Quotes by Charles Baudelaire More Quotes From Charles Baudelaire Any newspaper, from the first line to the last, is nothing but a web of horrors, I cannot understand how an innocent hand can touch a newspaper without convulsing in disgust. Charles Baudelaire lineslastshands It is good sometimes that the happy of this world should learn, were it only to humble their foolish pride for an instant, that there are higher, wider, and rarer joys than theirs. Charles Baudelaire pridehumblehappiness Unable to do away with love, the Church found a way to decontaminate it by creating marriage. Charles Baudelaire creatingchurchlove I throw fresh seeds out. Who knows what survives? Charles Baudelaire seedsknows My love, do you recall the object which we saw, That fair, sweet, summer morn! At a turn in the path a foul carcass On a gravel strewn bed, Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman, Burning and dripping with poisons, Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way Its belly, swollen with gases. Charles Baudelaire airsummersweet Torture, as the art of discovering the truth, is barbaric nonsense; it is the application of a material means to a spiritual end. Charles Baudelaire spiritualmeanart Our religion is itself profoundly sad - a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man's own language - so long as he knows anguish and is a painter. Charles Baudelaire painmenlong I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial. Charles Baudelaire uselessmonstersbeauty France at the dinner table in faraway places; but here, among ourselves, in the family, let us face the facts: France is not poetic; to tell the truth, she even feels a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse, those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic. Charles Baudelaire franceusefacts Everything, alas, is an abyss, actions, desires, dreams, words! Charles Baudelaire dreamactiondesire Ne cherchez plus mon coeur; les be" tes l'ont mange . Don't search any further for my heart; wild beasts ate it. Charles Baudelaire beastplusheart J'ai plus de souvenirs que si j'avais mille ans. IhavemorememoriesthanifIwereonethousandyearsold. Charles Baudelaire souvenirsplus Comme l'imagination a cre e le monde, elle le gouverne. Because imagination created the world, it governs it. Charles Baudelaire imaginationworld Evil is done without effort, naturally, it's destiny; good is always the product of skill. Charles Baudelaire destinyevilart Quand me" me Dieu n'existerait pas, la religion serait encore sainte et divineDieu est le seul e" tre qui, pour re gner, n'ait me" me pas besoin d'exister. Even if God did not exist, religion would still be holyand divine.God isthe only being who, inorder toreign, need not even exist. Charles Baudelaire stillsdivineneeds Il faut travailler sinon par go u" t, au moins par de sespoir, puisque, tout bien ve rifie , travailler est moins ennuyeux que s'amuser. We should work: if not by preference, at least out of despair. All things considered, work is less boring than amusement. Charles Baudelaire amusementdespairboring You walk on corpses, beauty, undismayed. Charles Baudelaire corpseswalks By nature, by necessity itself, [primitive man] is encyclopedic, while civilized man finds himself confined in the infinitely small regions of specialization. Charles Baudelaire primitive-manmenknowledge My soul travels on the smell of perfume like the souls of other men on music. Charles Baudelaire musicmentravel I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws. Charles Baudelaire catmusicglasses
