Arthur Rimbaud
35 quotes
Biography
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism.
"Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge."
"True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’."
"Life is the farce we are all forced to endure."
"But the problem is to make the soul into a monster"
"I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; Garlands from window to window; Golden chains from star to star ... And I dance."
"J'allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'étais ton féal."
"Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe."
"J'ai embrassé l'aube d'été."
"Il pleut doucement sur la ville."
"Plus léger qu'un bouchon j'ai dansé sur les flots."
"Un soir, j'ai assis la Beauté sur mes genoux. - Et je l'ai trouvée amère. - Et je l'ai injuriée."
"Je parvins à faire s'évanouir dans mon esprit toute l'espérance humaine."
"La vie est la farce à mener par tous."
"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."
"Je suis esclave de mon baptême."
"La vieillerie poétique avait une bonne part dans mon alchimie du verbe."
"Moi ! moi qui me suis dit mage ou ange, dispensé de toute morale, je suis rendu au sol."
"Il faut être absolument moderne."
"Je me crois en enfer, donc j'y suis."
"Je dis qu'il faut être voyant, se faire voyant. Le poète se fait voyant par un long, immense et raisonné dérèglement de tous les sens."
"What Rimbaud did for language, and not merely for poetry, is only beginning to be understood. And this more by readers than by writers, I feel. At least, in our country. Nearly all the modern French poets have been influenced by him. Indeed, one might say that contemporary French poetry owes everything to Rimbaud. Thus far, however, none have gone beyond him — in daring or invention."
"I saw that all beings are fated to happiness: action is not life, but a way of wasting some force, an enervation. Morality is the weakness of the brain."
"Morality is the weakness of the mind."
"The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire.He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none. A language must be found…of the soul, for the soul and will include everything: perfumes, sounds colors, thought grappling with thought"
"L'aube exalteé ainsi qu'un peuple de colombes, et j'ai vu quelquefois ce que l'homme a cru voir!(And dawn, exalted like a host of doves - and then I've seen what men believe they've seen!)"