573 Quotes by Charles Baudelaire

I sing of calamitous dogs, those that wander among the winding ravines of great cities, or those whose sparkling, winning eyes have asked some misfit: “Take me with you, and our combined wretchedness might make some sort of happiness!

It always seems to me that I should feel well in the place where I am not.

Conceive a canvas for a lyrical or fairytale buffoonery, for a pantomime, and translate it into a serious novel. Drown everything in an abnormal and dreamy atmosphere, – in the atmosphere of the great days. – It must be something soothing, – even serene in its passion. – Regions of pure Poetry.

I lived for a long time under vast porticos That maritime suns tinted with a thousand fires, And whose great pillars, straight and majestuous In the evening made seem like basaltic caves.

Isn’t it true that a pleasant house makes winter more poetic, and doesn’t winter add to the poetry of a house?

Any healthy man can go without food for two days – but not without poetry.

Eternal superiority of the Dandy. What is the Dandy?

Even if it were proven that God didn’t exist, Religion would still be Saintly and Divine.

A room like a dream, a room truly spiritual, whose stagnant atmosphere is lightly tinted with pink and blue. It’s a thing of the dusk, something bluish, pinkish; a sensual dream during an eclipse.