Charles Baudelaire

"Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams."

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

"France is not poetic; she even feels, in fact, a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse, those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic."

"Inspiration comes of working every day."

"It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree."

"It is the hour to be drunken! to escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish."

"It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish."

"Music fathoms the sky."

"Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols, which observe him with familiar glances."

"Our religion is itself profoundly sad - a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man's own language - so long as he knows anguish and is a painter."

"Poetry and progress are like two ambitious men who hate one another with an instinctive hatred, and when they meet upon the same road, one of them has to give place."

"The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs."

"The unique and supreme voluptuousness of love lies in the certainty of committing evil. And men and women know from birth that in evil is found all sensual delight."

"There are moments of existence when time and space are more profound, and the awareness of existence is immensely heightened."

"There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create."

"Those men get along best with women who can get along best without them."