Always be a poet, even in prose.

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.

I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.

Genius is childhood recalled at will.

Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility.

Where one should see only what is beautiful, our public looks only for what is true.

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