The 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
That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity – that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Beauty often arises from imperfection and surprise.
Baudelaire suggests that true beauty is not found in perfect regularity, but rather in the unexpected and the irregular. The element of surprise, along with a certain degree of distortion or asymmetry, enhances our appreciation of beauty, making it more sensibly appealing to us.
Themes
BeautyImperfectionSurpriseArtIrregularity
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a speech about the value of creativity in art.
More from Charles Baudelaire
All quotes →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.
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The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
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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
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