“I had never been into society; for me the world was the enclosure of the college and the seminary. I had a vague knowledge that there was a something called woman, but I never dwelt upon the subject; I was… — 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 in thought that which is most ineffable, and in form the vaguest and most fleeting contours; listening that it may translate them to the subtle confidences of the neuropath, to the avowals of aging and depraved… — 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 Image
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 Image
[A cat] will make itself the companion of your hours of work, of loneliness, or of sadness. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“What is the use of beauty in woman? Provided a woman is physically well made and capable of bearing children, she will always be good enough in the opinion of economists. What is the use of music? -- of painting? Who would be fool enough nowadays to prefer Mozart to Carrel, Michael Angelo to the inventor of white mustard? There… — 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 and wainscoting Falling away... Moss hides the door. Only one shutter, hanging... But Seeping over the windowsill, Like frosted breath, proof that this hut, This slum, is living, breathing still. Corkscrew of smoke... A wisp of… — 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 Image
To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind. — Theophile Gautier Copy Share Image
“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 Image