Theophile Gautier Quotes

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.

What I write is not for little girls.

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.

The cat is a dilettante in fur.

Sooner barbarity than boredom.

If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.

I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.

I am a man for whom the outside world exists.

Critical lice are like body lice, which desert corpses to seek the living.

Books follow morals, and not morals books.

Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.

A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.

I was born to travel and write verse.

Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.