573 Quotes by Charles Baudelaire

Listen, my dear – with soft step the night hears.

The poet is like the prince of clouds Who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer; Exiled on the ground in the midst of jeers, His giant wings prevent him from walking.

From Satan or from God, what matter? Angel or Siren, What matter, if you make – fairy with velvet eyes, Rhythm, perfume, light, o my only queen – The universe less hideous, each moment less strained?

L’imagination est la reine du vrai, et le possible est une des provinces du vrai. Imagination is the queen of the truth and the possible is one of the provinces of the truth.

Through the Unknown, we’ll find the New.

Life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed by the desire of changing his bed. One would prefer to suffer near the fire, and another is certain he would get well if he were by the window.

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

Alas! Man’s vices, horrible as they are supposed to be, contain the positive proof of his taste for the infinite.

Now is the time to get drunk! To stop being the martyred slaves of time, to get absolutely drunk – on wine, poetry, or on virtue, as you please.