Quotes from Comte de Lautreamont

Arithmetic! Algebra! Geometry! Grandiose trinity! Luminous triangle! Whoever has not known you is without sense!

Throughout the centuries, man has considered himself beautiful. I rather suppose that man only believes in his own beauty out of pride; that he is not really beautiful and he suspects this himself; for why does he look on the face of his fellow-man with such scorn?

The great universal family of men is a utopia worthy of the most mediocre logic.

When I write down my thoughts, they do not escape me. This action makes me remember my strength which I forget at all times. I educate myself proportionately to my captured thought. I aim only to distinguish the contradiction between my mind and nothingness.

Sleep is a reward for some, a punishment for others. For all, it is a sanction.

I will leave no memoirs.

Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.

Beautiful… as the fortuitous encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table.

Poetry must be made by all and not by one.

Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table

Farewell until eternity, where you and I shall not find ourselves together.

Although according to certain philosophers it is quite difficult to distinguish the jester from the melancholic, life itself being a comic drama or a dramatic comedy.

Oh if only instead of being a hell, the universe had been an immense anus!

the association of two, or more, apparently alien elements on a plane alien to both is the most potent ignition of poetry.

When one wants to be famous, one has to dive gracefully into rivers of the blood of cannon-blasted bodies.

It is not right that everyone should read the pages which follow; only a few will be able to savour this bitter fruit with impunity. Consequently, shrinking soul, turn on your heels and go back before penetrating further into such uncharted, perilous wastelands. Listen well to what I say: turn on your heels and go back, not forward,[...]

We say sound things when we do not strive to say to say extraordinary ones.

Throughout my life I have seen, without one exception, narrow-shouldered men performing innumerable idiotic acts, brutalizing their fellows, and corrupting souls by every means. They call the motive for their actions: fame.

Moi, je veux montrer mes qualités; mais, je ne suis pas assez hypocrite pour cacher mes vices! Le rire, le mal, l'orgueil, la folie, paraitront, tour à tour, entre la sensibilité et l'amour de la justice, et serviront d'exemple à la stupéfaction humaine; chacun s'y reconnaitra, non pas tel qu'il devrait être, mais tel qu'il est.

I do not accept evil. Man is perfect. The soul does not fall. Progress exists. . . . Up till now, misfortune has been described in order to inspire terror and pity. I will describe happiness in order to inspire their contraries. . . . As long as my friends do not die, I will not speak of death.

it is grand to contemplate the ruins of cities; but it is grander still to contemplate the ruins of human beings!

I do not accept evil. Man is perfect. The soul does not topple. Progress exists. Good is irreducible. Antichrists, accusing angels, eternal sufferings, religions are the product of doubt.

Love of justice is for most men only the courage to suffer injustice.

The poet must be more useful than any other member if his tribe.