573 Quotes by Charles Baudelaire

No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.

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

One man illumines you with his other sets in you his sorrow.

As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.

I love to watch the fine mist of the night come on, The windows and the stars illumined, one by one, The rivers of dark smoke pour upward lazily, And the moon rise and turn them silver. I shall see The springs, the summers, and the autumns slowly pass; And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass, I shall close all my shutters, pull the curtains tight, And build me stately palaces by candlelight.

— ¡Ella llora, insensata, porque ella ha vivido! ¡Y porque vive! Pero, lo que ella deplora Sobre todo, lo que la hace temblar hasta las rodillas, Es que mañana, ¡ah! ¡tendrá que vivir todavía! ¡Mañana, pasado mañana y siempre! - ¡Como nosotros!

Les hibouxSous les ifs noirs qui les abritent,Les hiboux se tiennent rangés,Ainsi que des dieux étrangers,Dardant leur oeil rouge. Ils méditent.Sans remuer ils se tiendrontJusqu'à l'heure mélancoliqueOù, poussant le soleil oblique,Les ténèbres s'établiront.Leur attitude au sage enseigneQu'il faut en ce monde qu'il craigneLe tumulte et le mouvement,L'homme ivre d'une ombre qui passePorte toujours le châtimentD'avoir voulu changer de place.

And yetto wine, to opium even, I preferthe elixir of your lips on which love flaunts itself;and in the wasteland of desireyour eyes afford the wells to slake my thirst.

Oh, Creator! Can monsters exist in the sight of him who alone knows how they were invented, how they invented themselves, and how they might not have invented themselves?