Charles Baudelaire, portrait by Étienne Carjat - Print

“Sight does not master the pictures, it is the pictures which master one's sight. They flood one's consciousness.”

“Art is born of constraints, lives of struggles, and dies of freedom.”

“Art is the reflection that the dazzled human soul gives back of the splendor of the beautiful.”

“But where are the snows of yesteryear?”

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”

“The sky is pretty like an angel.”

“To create is always to speak of childhood.”

“Perfumes, colors, and sounds respond to one another.”

“Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.”

“Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.”

“If the world were clear, art would not be.”

“One must be absolutely modern.”

“Genius is childhood rediscovered at will.”

“Tears fall in my heart as rain falls on the town.”

“Art hovers around the truth, but with the firm intention not to burn itself.”

“One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.”

“Art is the premonition of truth.”

“Only children know what they are looking for.”