Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmontwas a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling Rémy de Gourmont is incorrect, albeit common and used by Ezra Pound in translations of his work...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 April 1858
CountryFrance
knows
To know what everyone knows is to know nothing.
bored imbeciles contemplating
An imbecile is never bored: he contemplates himself.
needs intellect organs
Intelligence, that sublimation of the sensibility, that organ of the need to know, is sterilized sensibility.
wine men bags
Man, in spite of his tendency towards mendacity, has a great respect for what he calls the truth. Truth is his staff in his voyage through life; commonplaces are the bread in his bag and the wine in his jug.
education sensibility
We live less and less, and we learn more and more. Sensibility is surrendering to intelligence.
relationship men rail
Most men who rail against women are railing at one woman only.
silence pleasure scoundrels
The pleasure of being a scoundrel can be adequately savored in silence.
understanding secret enough
If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be -not understood, but divined.
hypocrisy modesty form
Modesty is the delicate form of hypocrisy.
ocean past desire
And there is neither beginning nor end, nor past nor future; there is only a present, at the same time static and ephemeral, multiple and absolute. It is the vital ocean in which we all share, according to our strength, our needs or our desires.
smell love-always
The woman who loves always smells good.
hard-work thinking ideas
Thinking is hard work. One can't bear burdens and ideas at the same time
two facts elements
Two elements are needed to form a truth - a fact and an abstraction
educational lying simple
Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds.