Poetry has no goal other than itself; it can have no other, and no poem will be so great, so noble, so truly worthy of the name of poem, than one written uniquely for the pleasure of writing a poem.

From that moment onwards, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on a metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fanaticism took hold of these new sun-worshippers.

I throw fresh seeds out. Who knows what survives?

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

The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before he is defeated.

The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.

The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.