“The very essence of ballet is poetic, deriving from dreams rather than from reality. About the only reason for its existence is to enable us to remain in the world of fantasy and escape from the people we rub shoulders… — Théophile Gautier Copy Share Image
“(Decadent style) is ingenious, complicated, learned, full of shades of meaning and research, always pushing further the limits of language... forcing itself to express… — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
[A cat] will make itself the companion of your hours of work, of loneliness, or of sadness. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
“It is as absurd to say that a man is a drunkard because he describes an orgy or a debauchee because he recounts a… — Théophile Gautier Copy Share
It may well be that the pictures of Courbet, Manet, Monet and their like contain beauties which escape the notice of such old romantic… — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
“What is the use of beauty in woman? Provided a woman is physically well made and capable of bearing children, she will always be… — Théophile Gautier Copy Share
“Smoke By Théophile Gautier Translated by Norman R. Shapiro Over there, trees are sheltering A hunchedback hut... A slum, no more... Roof askew, walls… — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
There is nothing truly beautiful but that which can never be of any use whatsoever; everything useful is ugly, for it is the expression… — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
“This apparent hurly-burly and disorder turn out, after all, to reproduce real life with its fantastic ways more accurately than the most carefully studied… — Théophile Gautier Copy Share
The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share
“I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and thou mayst well have thought that I had forgotten thee. But I have come… — Théophile Gautier Copy Share
