The essence of art that is at all noble is the DREAM, and this dream dwells only upon what is distant, absent,… — Georges Rodenbach Absent Copy Share Image
“The windows let in a perfect light, a vibrant light such as you get in the north, where a kind of grey… — Georges Rodenbach Light Copy Share Image
“Now Borluut tried to work out how this had happened to him. Passion flows like a river and it is very difficult… — Georges Rodenbach Passion Copy Share Image
“All lovers desire solitude in order to possess each other more completely. They create for each other a new universe inhabited by… — Georges Rodenbach Love Copy Share Image
Can there be anything more sad than a girl dying on the day of her first communion, in her new dress. A… — Georges Rodenbach Brides Copy Share Image
“Wilhelmine chatted on, chatted as if emboldened by the gathering dusk. She wasn't afraid any more. She didn't blush any more. And… — Georges Rodenbach Dark Copy Share Image
“Then he returned to his theme: 'If so many lovers feel the desire to die and more and more die each day,… — Georges Rodenbach Death Copy Share Image
“But any great happiness is a bright light, a challenge to fate to do its worst. There must not be people who… — Georges Rodenbach Fate Copy Share Image
“Bruges was his dead wife. And his dead wife was Bruges. The two were united in a like destiny. It was Bruges-la-Morte,… — Georges Rodenbach Bruges Copy Share Image
“Is that not what makes it great?' he retorted to his friend. 'Its beauty resides in its silence, and its glory in… — Georges Rodenbach Beauty Copy Share Image
“What an austere landscape! Borluut was alone, with nothing but the sky and water. No footsteps, apart from his own, marked the… — Georges Rodenbach Austere Copy Share Image
“Yes, it was the love of woman that was the danger, the obstacle on which her dearest wish might founder. How it… — Georges Rodenbach Love Copy Share Image
“The widower reviewed his past in a sunless light which was intensified by the greyness of the November twilight, whilst the bells… — Georges Rodenbach Autumn Copy Share Image
“Now Borluut was seeing it from close to. And to its very end, it seemed, from the way the line of the… — Georges Rodenbach Beach Copy Share Image
“Oh, the sudden change of perspective brought about by travel and absence! How different everything was here: the people in the streets,… — Georges Rodenbach Change Copy Share Image
“Was that not the way it ought to be? The beauty of Bruges lay in being dead. From the top of the… — Georges Rodenbach Beauty Copy Share Image
“It was van Hulle who had been the initiator of this restoration of their ancestral language to its former glory as a… — Georges Rodenbach Bruges Copy Share Image
“Bartholomeus went on, 'I wanted to show that these objects are sensitive, suffer at the coming of night, faint at the departure… — Georges Rodenbach Darkness Copy Share Image
“Mevr. Cadzand feared for her son who, with his responsive nature, as sensitive as a hothouse plant, was more exposed. Fortunately religion… — Georges Rodenbach Catholicism Copy Share Image
“The crowd listened all the more closely for having waited and despaired, especially since this time the bells, ringing softly, demanded a… — Georges Rodenbach Christmas-carols Copy Share Image
“He mostly preached in the evening, when the college church was already shrouded in shadow. And he chose subjects that filled the… — Georges Rodenbach Fear Copy Share Image
“He felt more cheerful, revived by the journey, released from himself and his poor life, uplifted by thoughts of the infinite.” — Georges Rodenbach Beach Copy Share Image
“Is this not the collector's exquisite pleasure, that his desire should know no bounds, should reach out into the infinite, should never… — Georges Rodenbach Collecting Copy Share Image
“...without knowing why, he yielded to the temptation of those lips and flung onto them, eating them, partaking of their sacrament... Eucharist… — Georges Rodenbach Eucharist Copy Share Image
“The act of writing itself is like an act of love. There is contact. There is exchange too. We no longer know… — Georges Rodenbach Letter writing Copy Share Image
“Ornamentation, festoons, carvings, cartouches, bas-reliefs, countless surprises among the sculptures - and the tones of the facades weathered by time and rain,… — Georges Rodenbach Architecture Copy Share Image
“Even during the nights, their nights punctuated by unending kisses, they were sometimes irritated by the carillon, which sounded every quarter of… — Georges Rodenbach Bells Copy Share Image
“He was still climbing. Here and there doors opened revealing vast rooms, dormitories with heavy joists where bells were sleeping. A vague… — Georges Rodenbach Bells Copy Share Image
