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Charles Baudelaire Quotes

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The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.

The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.

Charles Baudelaire
Life, Devil, Doe
Charles Baudelaire (2001). “The Prose Poems and La Fanfarlo”, p.76

I am the wound and the knife! I am the slap and the cheek! I am the limbs and the rack, And the victim and the executioner! I am the vampire of my own heart.

Charles Baudelaire
Heart, Knives, Self

Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.

Charles Baudelaire
Ingredients, Strangeness

Extract the eternal from the ephemeral.

Charles Baudelaire
Ephemeral, Eternal
Charles Baudelaire (1951). “My heart laid bare, and other prose writings”

A multitude of small delights constitute happiness

Charles Baudelaire
Happiness, Delight, Multitudes
Charles Baudelaire (1951). “My heart laid bare, and other prose writings”

What can an eternity of damnation matter to someone who has felt, if only for a second, the infinity of delight?

Charles Baudelaire
Damnation, Delight, Matter

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.

Charles Baudelaire
Inspire, Desire, Conquer
Charles Baudelaire, Louise Varèse (1970). “Paris Spleen, 1869”, p.78, New Directions Publishing

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it-it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk. But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

Charles Baudelaire
Wine, Drunk, Wish
Charles Baudelaire, “Be Drunk”

An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom.

Charles Baudelaire
Oasis, Boredom, Desert
Charles Baudelaire (2012). “The Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen: Selected Poems”, p.63, Courier Corporation

One can only forget about time by making use of it.

Charles Baudelaire
Inspirational, Time, Use
"Intimate journals: Mon cœur mis à nu". Book by Charles Baudelaire, 1864.

Nothing can be done except little by little.

Charles Baudelaire
Perseverance, Done, Literature
Charles Baudelaire (1956). “The Essence of Laughter: And Other Essays, Journals, and Letters”

Evil comes up softly like a flower.

Charles Baudelaire
Flower, Evil, Come Up
Charles Baudelaire (1926). “Baudelaire, Prose and Poetry”

The beautiful is always bizarre.

Charles Baudelaire
Beautiful, Art, Creativity
Charles Baudelaire (2015). “Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal”, p.194, Arc Publications

Any man who does not accept the conditions of life sells his soul.

Charles Baudelaire
Life, Men, History
Charles Baudelaire (1925). “Les fleurs de mal: Petits poèmes en prose, Les paradis artificiels”

To dream magnificently is not a gift given to all men, and even for those who possess it, it runs a strong risk of being progressively diminished by the ever-growing dissipation of modern life and by the restlessness engendered by material progress. The ability to dream is a divine and mysterious ability; because it is through dreams that man communicates with the shadowy world which surrounds him. But this power needs solitude to develop freely; the more one concentrates, the more one is likely to dream fully, deeply.

Charles Baudelaire
Running, Dream, Strong

What is irritating about love is that it is a crime that requires an accomplice.

Charles Baudelaire
Best Love, Love Is, Crime

There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.

Charles Baudelaire
Men, Giving, Surprise
Charles Baudelaire (2001). “The Prose Poems and La Fanfarlo”, p.74

There are some temptations which are so strong that they must be virtues.

Charles Baudelaire
Strong, Temptation, Virtue

A sweetheart is a bottle of wine, a wife is a wine bottle.

Charles Baudelaire
Funny, Cute, Marriage

We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.

Charles Baudelaire
Time, Mean, Night
Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.107, Courier Corporation

We love women in proportion to their degree of strangeness to us.

Charles Baudelaire
Women, Degrees, Proportion
Charles Baudelaire (1956). “The Essence of Laughter: And Other Essays, Journals, and Letters”

Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.

Charles Baudelaire
Childhood, Inspire, Genius

Remembering is only a new form of suffering.

Charles Baudelaire
Suffering, Remember, Form
Charles Baudelaire (1986). “La Fanfarlo”

Even as a child I felt in my heart two opposite emotions: the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.

Charles Baudelaire
Children, Heart, Two
"Baudelaire: a self portrait".

It is easy to understand why the rabble dislike cats. A cat is beautiful; it suggests ideas of luxury, cleanliness, voluptuous pleasures.

Charles Baudelaire
Beautiful, Cat, Ideas
Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.49, Courier Corporation

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