L'imagination m'apportait des délices infinies. En recouvrant ce que les hommes appellent la raison, faudra-t-il regretter de les avoir perdues...? My imagination gave me infinite delight. In recovering what men call reason, do I have to regret the loss of these joys?
Gerard De NervalOur dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world.
Gerard De NervalThe only refuge left to us was the poet's ivory tower, which we climbed, ever higher, to isolate ourselves from the mob.
Gerard De NervalThe first moments of sleep are an image of death; a hazy torpor grips our thoughts and it becomes impossible for us to determine the exact instant when the I, under another form, continues the task of existence.
Gerard De NervalMan, do you think yours is the only soul? Look around you. Everything that you see quivers with being. Though your thoughts are free, one thing you do not think about: the whole. Beasts have a mind; respect it. Flowers too- look at one. Nature brought forth each petal. There is a mystery that sleeps in metal. Everything feels, and has power over you.
Gerard De Nerval