Charles Baudelaire Quotes

L’amour ressemblait fort à une torture ou à une opération chirurgicale.

God is the only being who need not even exist in order to reign.<p>Whatever is created by the spirit is more alive than matter.

Dieu est le seul être qui, pour régner, n'ait même pas besoin d'exister. Ce qui est créé par l’esprit est plus vivant que la matière.

The unique and supreme pleasure of love lies in the certainty of doing evil–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil.

There is an invincible taste for prostitution in the heart of man, from which comes his horror of solitude. He wants to be two. The man of genius wants to be one.… It is this horror of solitude, the need to lose oneself in the external flesh, that man nobly calls the need to love.

The more a man cultivates the arts, the less he gets hard. There is an ever more sensible divorce between the spirit and the brute. Only the brute gets a good hard-on, and fucking is the lyricism of the masses. To fuck is to aspire to enter another, and the artist never pulls out of himself.

To do one's duty every day and trust in God for tomorrow.

Faire son devoir tous les jours et se fier à Dieu, pour le lendemain.

One can only forget about time by making use of it.

On ne peut oublier le temps qu'en s'en servant.

It is by universal misunderstanding that we agree with each other. If, by some misfortune, we understood each other, we would never agree.

C'est par le malentendu universel que tout le monde s'accorde. Car si, par malheur, on se comprenait, on ne pourrait jamais s'accorder.

Glorifier le culte des images (ma grande, mon unique, ma primitive passion).

This is what a girl really is. A little fool, a little slut; the greatest idiocy united with the greatest depravity.

La jeune fille, ce qu'elle est en réalité.</p>Une petite sotte et une petite salope; la plus grande imbécile unie à la plus grande dépravation.