The pleasure we derive from the representation of the present is due, not only to the beauty it can be clothed in, but also to its essential quality of being the present. – Charles Baudelaire
Any man who does not accept the conditions of human life sells his soul. – Charles Baudelaire
I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial. – Charles Baudelaire
The cannon thunders… limbs fly in all directions… one can hear the groans of victims and the howling of those performing the sacrifice… its Humanity in search of happiness. – Charles Baudelaire