It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

Quote by Charles Baudelaire

Topics: Charles Baudelaire Quotes

Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art.

Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art.

I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.

I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.

I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old.

I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old.

Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art,...

Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art,...

Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the...

Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the...

Whether you come from heaven or hell, what does it matter, O Beauty!

Whether you come from heaven or hell, what does it matter, O Beauty!

It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.

It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.

Let us beware of common folk, of common sense, of sentiment, of inspiration, and of...

Let us beware of common folk, of common sense, of sentiment, of inspiration, and of...

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself.

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

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

Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the...

Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the...

There is no more steely barb than that of the Infinite.

There is no more steely barb than that of the Infinite.

It would perhaps be nice to be alternately the victim and the executioner.

It would perhaps be nice to be alternately the victim and the executioner.

This life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed with a desire to...

This life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed with a desire to...

Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and...

Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and...

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

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

All which is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation.

All which is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation.

Even in the centuries which appear to us to be the most monstrous and foolish,...

Even in the centuries which appear to us to be the most monstrous and foolish,...

Progress, this great heresy of decay.

Progress, this great heresy of decay.

To be a great man and a saint for oneself, that is the only important...

To be a great man and a saint for oneself, that is the only important...