Quotes from Edmond de Goncourt

Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.

The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.

Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins.

I feel sure that coups d'état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything.

Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs.

Sickness sensitizes man for observation, like a photographic plate.

She is unable to dream, think or love. In a woman, poetry never comes naturally, but always as the result of education. Only the woman of the world is a woman; the rest are simply females.

As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.

There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable.