Sexuality is the lyricism of the masses.

Imagination is the queen of truth, and possibility is one of the regions of truth. She is positively akin to infinity.

Here comes the time when, vibrating on its stem, every flower fumes like a censer; noises and perfumes circle in the evening air.

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

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

Strangeness is the indispensable condiment of all beauty.

I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial.