It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree. Charles Baudelaire More Quotes by Charles Baudelaire More Quotes From Charles Baudelaire Happy is the man who can with vigorous wing Mount to those luminous serene fields! The man whose thoughts, like larks, Take liberated flight toward the morning skies --Who hovers over life and understands without effort The language of flowers and voiceless things! Charles Baudelaire flower morning men In my mind it strolls, as well as in my apartment. A cat, strong, sweet and delightful. Charles Baudelaire cat strong sweet From Satan or from God, what matter? Angel or Siren, Charles Baudelaire queens angel eye The true voyagers are those who go for the sake of traveling . . . and without quite knowing why, they say, 'Let us depart!'. Charles Baudelaire knowing sake Who among us has not dreamt, in moments of ambition, of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical without rhythm and rhyme, supple and staccato enough to adapt to the lyrical stirrings of the soul, the undulations of dreams, and sudden leaps of consciousness. Charles Baudelaire miracle ambition dream There are some temptations which are so strong that they must be virtues. Charles Baudelaire virtue strong temptation I think I would be happy in that place I happen not to be, and this question of moving house is the subject of a perpetual dialogue I have with my soul. Charles Baudelaire house moving thinking A man who from the beginning has long been soaked in the languid atmosphere of a woman, the scent of her hands, her bosom, her knees, her hair, her lithe and flowing clothes, Charles Baudelaire women hair hands Genius is nothing more or less than childhood recovered by will, a childhood how equipped for self-expression with an adult's capacities. Charles Baudelaire expression self children It is this admirable and immortal instinct for beauty which causes us to regard the earth and its spectacles as a glimpse, a correspondence of the beyond. Charles Baudelaire glimpse causes beauty It is regrettable that, among the Rights of Man, the right of contradicting oneself has been forgotten. Charles Baudelaire regret rights men Poetry and progress are like two ambitious men who hate one another with an instinctive hatred, and when they meet upon the same road, one of them has to give place. Charles Baudelaire hate men two My concern today is with the painting of manners of the present. The past is interesting not only by reason of the beauty which could be distilled from it by those artists for whom it was the present, but also precisely because it is the past, for its historical value. It is the same with the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty with which it can be invested, but also to its essential quality of being present Charles Baudelaire historical-value artist past The idea of beauty which man creates for himself imprints itself on his whole attire, crumples or stiffens his dress, rounds off or squares his gesture, and in the long run even ends by subtly penetrating the very features of his face. Man ends by looking like his ideal self. These engravings can be translated either into beauty or ugliness; in one direction, they become caricatures, in the other, antique statues. Charles Baudelaire squares running men The pleasure we derive from the representation of the present is due, not only to the beauty it can be clothed in, but also to its essential quality of being the present. Charles Baudelaire aquariums time beauty It is from the womb of art that criticism was born. Charles Baudelaire born criticism art Etre un homme utile m'a paru toujours quelque chose de bien hideux. To be useful has always seemed to me quite hideous. Charles Baudelaire hideous Je sais la douleur est la noblesse unique O u' ne mordront jamais la terre et les enfers. I know that pain is the one nobility upon which Hell itself cannot encroach. Charles Baudelaire hell pain unique Certes, je sortirai quant a' moi satisfait D'un monde o u' l'action n'est pas la soeur du re" ve. Indeed, for my part, I shall be happy to leave A world where action is not sister to the dream. Charles Baudelaire dream action world Ah! Seigneur! donnez-moi la force et le courage De contempler mon coeur et mon corps sans de go u" t. Lord! give me the strength and the courage To see my heart and my body without disgust. Charles Baudelaire body heart giving
