Dandyism is the last flicker of heroism in decadent ages.... Dandyism is a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy. But alas! the rising tide of democracy, which spreads everywhere and reduces everything to the same level, is daily carrying away these last champions of human pride, and submerging, in the waters of oblivion, the last traces of these remarkable myrmidons.
Charles BaudelaireIn this horror of solitude, this need to lose his ego in exterior flesh, which man calls grandly the need for love.
Charles BaudelaireThe Poet is like the prince of the clouds, who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer. Exiled on the ground in the midst of the jeering crowd, his giant's wings keep him from walking.
Charles BaudelaireDrowsing, they take the noble attitude of a great sphinx, who, in a desert land, sleeps always, dreaming dreams that have no end.
Charles BaudelaireHere comes the time when, vibrating on its stem, every flower fumes like a censer; noises and perfumes circle in the evening air.
Charles Baudelaire