Quotes from Theophile Gautier

What was it — I paused to think — what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered.

La solitude n'aime pas être surprise ne déshabillé et sème autour d'elle toutes sortes d'obstacles.

In vain did Phœbe's alabaster brow show above the horizon reflected in the sombre mirror of the river; Zamore would not bay at the moon, although such prolonged ululation gives infinite delight to creatures of his species.

Zamore may say within his tomb, as says the Greek dancer in her epitaph: "Earth, rest lightly on me, for I rested lightly on thee.

The hand would chastise the head.

Había evitado las balas como las evitan los valientes, precipitándose a su encuentro.

Con qué emoción se encontraron los dos esposos, para quienes el matrimonio no era sino la pasión permitida por Dios y por los hombres!

303]No doubt my reader wonders how cats and rats, two races so hostile to each other, and the one of which is the prey of the other, can manage to live together. The fact is that mine got on wonderfully harmoniously together. The cats were good as gold to the rats, which had lost all fear of them.

She had also a taste for music. Nestling upon a pile of scores, she would listen most attentively and with every mark of satisfaction to the singers who came to perform at the critic's piano. But high notes made her nervous, and she never failed to close the singer's mouth with her paw if the lady sang the high A. We used to try the experiment for the fun of the thing, and it never failed once. It was quite impossible to fool my dilettante cat on that note.

La solitude n'aime pas être surprise en déshabillé et sème autour d'elle toutes sortes d'obstacles.

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

Nothing is truly beautiful unless it cannot be used for anything; everything that is useful is ugly because it is the expression of some need, and those of man are ignoble and disgusting, like his poor and infirm nature.

Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes?

Smoke By Théophile Gautier Translated by Norman R. Shapiro Over there, trees are sheltering A hunchedback hut... A slum, no more... Roof askew, walls and wainscoting Falling away... Moss hides the door. Only one shutter, hanging... But Seeping over the windowsill, Like frosted breath, proof that this hut, This slum, is living, breathing still. Corkscrew of smoke... A wisp of blue Escapes the hovel, whose soul it is... Rises to God himself, and who Receives the news and makes it his.

It is gentle manners which prove so irresistible in women.

With all women gentleness is the most persuasive and powerful argument.

[A cat] will make itself the companion of your hours of work, of loneliness, or of sadness.

Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.

Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.

I was born to travel and write verse.

The arts teach and moralise by their beauty alone, not by translating a philosophical or social formula. For the truly artistic person, painting has itself as it's purpose, which is quite enough.

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

What I write is not for little girls.