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
Nature is a word, an allegory, a mold, an embossing, if you will.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature is a complex concept that encompasses many forms and representations.
In this quote, Charles Baudelaire suggests that nature is not just a simple entity but a multifaceted idea that can be interpreted in various ways, much like an allegory. It reflects how nature can shape and influence creativity and perception, acting as a canvas for artistic expression and understanding.
Themes
NatureAllegoryCreativityRepresentationBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might use this quote to emphasize the multifaceted value of nature.
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
The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
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
Similar quotes
We must now understand that our own well-being can be achieved only through the well-being of the entire natural world around us.
Thomas BerryRead
[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.
Elizabeth Von ArnimRead
We tend to block off many of our senses when we're staring at a screen. Nature time can literally bring us to our senses.
Richard LouvRead
And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springsβ Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Gerard Manley HopkinsRead
The fertility cycle is a cycle entirely of living creatures passing again and again through birth, growth, maturity, death, and decay.
Wendell BerryRead
Come to the sunset tree! The day is past and gone; The woodman's axe lies free, And the reaper's work is done.
John MiltonRead