“But that which remains for ever incomprehensible is the initial horror, the horror imposed on each of us, of having to live, and that is a mystery no philosophy can explain.” — 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 her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of… — Joris-Karl Huysmans Copy Share
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
