Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire; April 9, 1821 – August 31, 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 April 1821
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
solitude crowds poet
Multitude, solitude: equal and interchangeable terms for the active and prolific poet.
nature women natural
Woman is natural, that is to say, abominable.
knowledge men primitive-man
By nature, by necessity itself, [primitive man] is encyclopedic, while civilized man finds himself confined in the infinitely small regions of specialization.
beauty beautiful looks
Where one should see only what is beautiful, our public looks only for what is true.
beauty expression currents
For me, Romanticism is the most recent and the most current expression of beauty.
art crime should
A work of art should be like a well-planned crime.
past artist historical-value
My concern today is with the painting of manners of the present. The past is interesting not only by reason of the beauty which could be distilled from it by those artists for whom it was the present, but also precisely because it is the past, for its historical value. It is the same with the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty with which it can be invested, but also to its essential quality of being present
running men squares
The idea of beauty which man creates for himself imprints itself on his whole attire, crumples or stiffens his dress, rounds off or squares his gesture, and in the long run even ends by subtly penetrating the very features of his face. Man ends by looking like his ideal self. These engravings can be translated either into beauty or ugliness; in one direction, they become caricatures, in the other, antique statues.
vampire veins my-own
I am the vampire at my own veins.
sleep mirrors sublime
The dandy should aspire to be uninterruptedly sublime. He should live and sleep in front of a mirror.
art real philosophy
There can be no progress-real, moral prgress-except in the individual and by the individual himself.
heart beast plus
Ne cherchez plus mon coeur; les be" tes l'ont mange . Don't search any further for my heart; wild beasts ate it.
moving hands devil
the Devil's hand directs our every move - / the things we loathed become the things we love
believe passion thinking
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.