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.
And over your unconsecrated head you'll hear the howling wolves lament their fate and yours the livelong year.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the inevitability of suffering and the weight of fate that burdens us throughout our lives.
In this passage by Charles Baudelaire, the imagery of 'howling wolves' suggests a constant and haunting presence of despair, which accompanies the speaker throughout the year. It explores the themes of fate and existential anguish, indicating that our struggles and the sorrows of life are persistent and inescapable, symbolized by the wolves lamenting their fate and the speakerβs burden, creating a vivid reflection on the human condition.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one might quote Baudelaire to illustrate the constant presence of struggle.
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.
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.
There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
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.
Similar quotes
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Clear, unscaleable ahead, Rise the mountains of instead From whose cold, cascading streams None may drink except in dreams
Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.
Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
Nothing that comes and goes is you. _x000D_ _x000D_ 'I am bored.' Who knows this? _x000D_ _x000D_ 'I am angry, sad, afraid.' Who knows this? _x000D_ _x000D_ You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.
The nationalism I seek is one that decolonizes the brown and female body as it decolonizes the brown and female earth