Charles Baudelaire Quotes - Page 6

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There are but three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the warrior and the poet. To know, to kill and to create. The rest of mankind may be taxed and drudged, they are born for the stable, that is to say, to practise what they call professions.

Charles Baudelaire

Warrior, Three, May

Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.75, Courier Corporation

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In our corruption we perceive beauties unrevealed to ancient times.

Charles Baudelaire

Ancient, Corruption, Ancient Times

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Drink wine, drink poetry, drink virtue.

Charles Baudelaire

Wine, Drink, Virtue

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Multitude, solitude: equal and interchangeable terms for the active and prolific poet.

Charles Baudelaire

Solitude, Crowds, Poet

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The vices of man, as full of horror as one might suppose them to be, contain the proof (if in nothing else but their infinitely expandable nature) of his taste for the infinite; only, it is a taste that often takes a wrong turn.

Charles Baudelaire

Men, Infinity, Vices

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It is the greatest art of the devil to convince us he does not exist.

Charles Baudelaire

Art, Convince Us, Evil

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What is art? Prostitution.

Charles Baudelaire

Sarcastic, Art, Prostitution

Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.31, Courier Corporation

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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.

Charles Baudelaire

Love, Men, Leisure

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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

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A man who drinks only water has a secret to hide from his fellow men.

Charles Baudelaire

Men, Water, Secret

Charles Baudelaire (1971). “Artificial Paradise: On Hashish and Wine as Means of Expanding Individuality”

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The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before he is defeated.

Charles Baudelaire

Artist, History, Dueling

"Poison and vision: poems and prose of Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Rimbaud".

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Finer than any sand are dusts of gold that gleam, Vague starpoints, in the mystic iris of their eyes.

Charles Baudelaire

Cat, Eye, Dust

Charles Baudelaire (1991). “The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen: Poems”, Boa Editions

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To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.

Charles Baudelaire

Practice, Sorcery, Language

"L'art Romantique". Book by Charles Baudelaire, 1869.

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Strangeness is an ingredient necessary in beauty.

Charles Baudelaire

Ingredients, Strangeness

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It is at once by way of poetry and through poetry, as with music, that the soul glimpses splendors from beyond the tomb; and when an exquisite poem brings one's eyes to the point of tears, those tears are not evidence of an excess of joy, they are witness far more to an exacerbated melancholy, a disposition of the nerves, a nature exiled among imperfect things, which would like to possess, without delay, a paradise revealed on this very same earth.

Charles Baudelaire

Eye, Imperfect Things, Poetry

"L'art romantique". Book by Charles Baudelaire, 1869.

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True Civilization does not lie in gas, nor in steam, nor in turn-tables. It lies in the reduction of the traces of original sin.

Charles Baudelaire

Lying, Civilization, Doe

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These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking.... Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind.

Charles Baudelaire

Believe, Passion, Thinking

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I should like the fields tinged with red, the rivers yellow and the trees painted blue. Nature has no imagination.

Charles Baudelaire

Rivers, Yellow, Blue

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We revel in the laxness of the path we take.

Charles Baudelaire

Path

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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.

Charles Baudelaire

Beautiful, Mean, Despair

Charles Baudelaire (1986). “La Fanfarlo”

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Nothing in a portrait is a matter of indifference. Gesture, grimace, clothing, decor even - all must combine to realize a character.

Charles Baudelaire

Character, Portraits, Portraiture

Charles Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne (1981). “Art in Paris 1845-1862: salons and other exhibitions”

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With wine, poetry, or virtue as you choose. But get drunk.

Charles Baudelaire

Wine, Drunk, Virtue

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Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.

Charles Baudelaire

Dream, Reality, Common Sense

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It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

Charles Baudelaire

Despair, Boring, Amusing

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Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols, which observe him with familiar glances.

Charles Baudelaire

Confused, Men, Temples

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Born: April 9, 1821
Died: August 31, 1867
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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