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. Charles Baudelaire More Quotes by Charles Baudelaire More Quotes From Charles Baudelaire As for techniques and processes, as seen in the works themselves, neither public nor artists will find anything about them here. Those things are learned in the studio and the public is interested only in the results. Charles Baudelaire methodology technique artist A friend of mine, the most innocuous dreamer who ever lived, once set a forest on fire to see, as he said, if it would catch as easily as people said. The first ten times the experiment was a failure; but on the eleventh it succeeded all too well. Charles Baudelaire dreamer fire people 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. Charles Baudelaire eye cities monsters The People adore authority. Charles Baudelaire adore authority people Doubt, or the absence of faith and naivete, is a vice peculiar to this age, for no one is obedient nowadays; and naivete, which means the dominance of temperament in the manner, is a gift from God, possessed by very few. Charles Baudelaire age doubt mean There is no dream of love, however ideal it may be, which does not end up with a fat, greedy baby hanging from the breast. Charles Baudelaire dream doe baby An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom. Charles Baudelaire oasis boredom desert Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony. Charles Baudelaire quality fundamentals two The form of a town changes more swiftly alas! Than the heart of a mortal. Charles Baudelaire towns heart history On the day when a young writer corrects his first proof-sheet he is as proud as a schoolboy who has just got his first dose of pox. Charles Baudelaire pox proud writing For the perfect idler, for the passionate observer it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, such are some of the minor pleasures of those independent, intense and impartial spirits, who do not lend themselves easily to linguistic definitions. The observer is a prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes. Charles Baudelaire independent home travel The man who is unable to people his solitude is equally unable to be alone in a bustling crowd. The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself or some one else, as he chooses. [...] The solitary and thoughtful stroller finds a singular intoxication in this universal communion. [...] What men call love is a very small, restricted, feeble thing compared with this ineffable orgy, this divine prostitution of the soul giving itself entire...to the unexpected as it comes along, the stranger as he passes. Charles Baudelaire thoughtful love-is men The being who, for most men, is the source of the most lively, and even, be it said, to the shame of philosophical delights, the most lasting joys; the being towards or for whom all their efforts tend for whom and by whom fortunes are made and lost; for whom, but especially by whom, artists and poets compose their most delicate jewels; from whom flow the most enervating pleasures and the most enriching sufferings - woman, in a word, is not, for the artist in general... only the female of the human species. She is rather a divinity, a star. Charles Baudelaire philosophical women stars For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation. Charles Baudelaire financial honesty business Hypocrite reader my fellow my brother! Charles Baudelaire reading brother book Cats, so strong and gentle, the pride of the household. Charles Baudelaire cat strong pride In this horror of solitude, this need to lose his ego in exterior flesh, which man calls grandly the need for love. Charles Baudelaire poetry love men Finer than any sand are dusts of gold that gleam, Vague starpoints, in the mystic iris of their eyes. Charles Baudelaire cat dust eye Man loves man so much that when he flees the city, it is still to seek the crowd, that is, to rebuild the city in the country. Charles Baudelaire cities men country Evil comes up softly like a flower. Charles Baudelaire come-up flower evil
