“…he noticed that the free thinkers, the doctrinaires of the bourgeoisie, people who claimed every liberty that they might stifle the opinions of others, were greedy and shameless puritans whom, in education, he esteemed inferior to the corner shoemaker.” — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
Far from seeking to justify, as does the Church, the necessity of torments and afflictions, he cried, in his outraged pity: 'If a God… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
Ah; but my courage fails me, and my heart is sick within me! —Lord, take pity on the Christian who doubts, on the skeptic… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“There is not one single invention of (Nature's), however subtle or impressive it may be thought to be, that the human spirit cannot create;… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“Ah, when one has not the gift of rendering one's grief superbly and transforming it into literary or musical passages which weep magnificently, the… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“He wanted, in short, a work of art both for what it was in itself and for what it allowed him to bestow on… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
(Baudelaire) had descended to the bottom of the inexhaustible mine, had picked his way along abandoned or unexplored galleries, and had finally reached those… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“What he wanted was colours which would appear stronger and clearer in artificial light. He did not particularly care if they looked crude or… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
I wish to confound all these people, to create a work of art of a supernatural realism and of a spiritualist naturalism. I wish… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“The Louis XIII style in perfumery, composed of the elements dear to that period - orris-powder, musk, civet and myrtle-water, already known by the… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“Go forth more boldly, look at things more widely, pray as best you can, and do not trouble yourself.” — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
“He cared little for commonly experienced emotions, for everyday associations of ideas, now that the closing of his mind had grown more pronounced, and… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
His contempt for humanity grew fiercer, and at last he came to realize that the world is made up mostly of fools and scoundrels.… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share Image
