87 quotes
Do not fear being ridiculous in relation to the ridiculous.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
A Call to Order (1926)
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
A Call to Order (1926)
Disavow anyone who provokes or accepts the extermination of a race to which he does not belong.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Beauty is always the result of an accident. Of a violent lapse between acquired habits and those yet to be acquired.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Know that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
He who is affected by an insult is infected by it.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
Opium (1929)
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?
On his election to Académie Française (1955)
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard.
Opium (1929)
It is not I who become addicted, it is my body.
Opium (1929)