Quotes from Theophile Gautier

I am a man for whom the outside world exists.

If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I am Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah offer thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in one eternal kiss.

Pleasure has turned into habit much more quickly than I should have ever thought possible.

And then again, I am no longer quite such a good-looking young fellow that tapestries leap off the wall in my honour.

Demander à la poésie du sentimentalisme ... ce n'est pas ça. Des mots rayonnants, des mots de lumière ... avec un rythme et une musique, voilà ce que c'est, la poésie.

Dynasties of felines, as numerous as the dynasties of Egyptian kings, succeeded each other in our home. Accident, flight, or death accounted for them in turns. They were all beloved and regretted; but life is made up of forgetfulness, and the remembrance of cats passes away like the remembrance of men.

Nothing is really beautiful unless it is useless; everything useful is ugly, for it expresses a need, and the needs of man are ignoble and disgusting, like his poor weak nature. The most useful place in a house is the lavatory.

The very essence of ballet is poetic, deriving from dreams rather than from reality. About the only reason for its existence is to enable us to remain in the world of fantasy and escape from the people we rub shoulders with in the street. Ballets are the dreams of poets taken seriously.

Au lieu d'être immobile comme il convient à un pied embaumé depuis quatre mille ans, il s'agitait, se contractait et sautillait sur les papiers comme une grenouille effarée.

Her eyes were a poem; their every glance was a song.

Stvarno lepo je samo ako ne može ni?emu da služi. Sve što je korisno, ružno je, jer predstavlja potrebu, a kod ?oveka je ona gnusna i odvratna kao i njegova jadna i odvratna priroda. Najkorisnije u svakoj ku?i je klozet.

I belong to those for whom the superfluous is necessary.

I should have found you detestable.—Forgive that supposition.—By living with you on terms of close intimacy, I should have occasion, I doubt not, to see you in a cotton night-cap or in some absurd or grotesque domestic situation.—You

Pleasure has turned into passion much more quickly than I should ever have thought possible.

Oh, Graciosa, I have never been able to think about it without terror, loving somebody who is unworthy of my love. To bare my soul to impure eyes, and allow someone to defile the sanctuary of my heart. For though you may make a complete break some silt will always remains, and the stream never regains the original clarity.

Sur son trône d'airain le Destin qui s'en raille Imbibe leur éponge avec du fiel amer, Et la Nécessité les tord dans sa tenaille.

For Art alone is great: The bust survives the state, The crown the potentate.

only inasmuch as the injury had been secret, she was doing herself justice as best she could.

La belleza no es una idea absoluta y solo puede apreciarse por contraste.

Ochii ei erau cu adev?rat poem iar privirile alc?tuiau fiecare un cântec.

La dicha es una cosa tan rara en este mundo, que el hombre no ha pensado en inventar palabras para expresarla, mientras el vocabulario de los sufrimientos morales y físicos llena innumerables columnas en los diccionarios de todas las lenguas.

No deseo nada aunque lo deseo todo.

No existe nada realmente hermoso si no es lo que no puede servir para nada. Todo lo que es útil es feo, porque es la expresión de alguna necesidad y las del hombre son ruines y desagradables, igual que su pobre y enfermiza naturaleza. El rincón más útil de una casa son las letrinas.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form.