Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life. — 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
