That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity β that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty.
Charles BaudelaireRead
The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The priest possesses great power because he can instill extraordinary beliefs in people.
In this quote, Baudelaire highlights the significant influence of a priest or spiritual leader on the collective consciousness of a community. The ability of the priest to evoke profound beliefs demonstrates the profound connection between faith, authority, and the beliefs held by individuals within a crowd, suggesting that such influence can shape societies and their values.
Themes
PriestBeliefInfluenceCrowdAuthority
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the effect of leadership in religious contexts.
More from Charles Baudelaire
All quotes βThe dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
Charles BaudelaireRead
Who among us has not dreamt, in moments of ambition, of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical without rhythm and rhyme, supple and staccato enough to adapt to the lyrical stirrings of the soul, the undulations of dreams, and sudden leaps of consciousness.
Charles BaudelaireRead
There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
Charles BaudelaireRead
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 BaudelaireRead
Poetry and progress are like two ambitious men who hate one another with an instinctive hatred, and when they meet upon the same road, one of them has to give place.
Charles BaudelaireRead
Similar quotes
The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude.
Albert CamusRead
It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.
V. S. NaipaulRead
If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
It might be said that society speaks through the clothing it wears. Through its clothing it reveals its secret aspirations and uses it, at least in part, to build or destroy its future.
Pope Pius XiiRead
I'm German in my mind, but from a Germany that doesn't exist any more.
Karl LagerfeldRead
The self cannot be self without other selves.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read