Comte de Lautréamont > Quotes

“As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.”
― Comte de Lautréamont

“Farewell until eternity, where you and I shall not find ourselves together.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“After some hours, the dogs, exhausted by running round, almost dead, their tongues hanging out, set upon one another and, not knowing what they are doing, tear one another into thousands of pieces with incredible rapidity. Yet they do not do this out of cruelty.

One day, a glazed look in her eyes, my mother said to me: ‘When you are in bed and you hear the barking of the dogs in the countryside, hide beneath your blanket, but do not deride what they do: they have an insatiable thirst for the infinite, as you, and I, and all other pale, long-faced human beings do.’

Since that time, I have respected the dead woman’s wish. Like those dogs I feel the need for the infinite. I cannot, cannot satisfy this need. I am the son of a man and a woman, from what I have been told.

This astonishes me…I believed I was something more.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“I am filthy. I am riddled with lice. Hogs, when they look at me, vomit. My skin is encrusted with the scabs and scales of leprosy, and covered with yellow pus.[...] A family of toads has taken up residence in my left armpit and, when one of them moves, it tickles. Mind one of them does not escape and come and scratch the inside of your ear with its mouth; for it would then be able to enter your brain. In my right armpit there is a chameleon which is perpetually chasing them, to avoid starving to death: everyone must live.[...] My anus has been penetrated by a crab; encouraged by my sluggishness, he guards the entrance with his pincers, and causes me a lot of pain.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and Poems

“One should let one's nails grow for a fortnight. O, how sweet it is to drag brutally from his bed a child with no hair on his upper lip and with wide open eyes, make as if to touch his forehead gently with one's hand and run one's fingers through his beautiful hair. Then suddenly, when he is least expecting it, to dig one's long nails into his soft breast, making sure, though, that one does not kill him; for if he died, one would not later be able to contemplate his agonies. Then one drinks his blood as one licks his wounds; and during this time, which ought to last for eternity, the child weeps.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and Poems

“Eh bien, soit! Que ma guerre contre l'homme s'éternise, puisque chacun reconnait dans l'autre sa propre dégradation... puisque les deux sont ennemis mortels. Que je doive remporter une victoire désastreuse ou succomber, le combat sera beau: moi, seul, contre l'humanité.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“Moi, je veux montrer mes qualités; mais, je ne suis pas assez hypocrite pour cacher mes vices! Le rire, le mal, l'orgueil, la folie, paraitront, tour à tour, entre la sensibilité et l'amour de la justice, et serviront d'exemple à la stupéfaction humaine; chacun s'y reconnaitra, non pas tel qu'il devrait être, mais tel qu'il est.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“Ma subjectivité et le Créateur, c'est trop pour un cerveau.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“Les cygnes chantent avant de mourir. Certaines personnes feraient bien de mourir avant de chanter.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“«Je suis fils de l'homme et de la femme, d'après ce qu'on m'a dit. Ça m'étonne... Je croyais être d'avantage!»”
― Comte de Lautréamont

“I will leave no memoirs.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“O Ocean, you remind me somewhat of the bluish marks one sees on the battered backs of cabin boys.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Los cantos de Maldoror/ Chants of Maldoror (El Libro De Bolsillo-Areas De Conocimiento-Literatura-Literatura)

“Plût au ciel que le lecteur, enhardi et devenu momentanément féroce comme ce qu’il lit, trouve, sans se désorienter, son chemin abrupt et sauvage, à travers les marécages désolés de ces pages sombres et pleines de poison ; car, à moins qu'il n’apporte dans sa lecture une logique rigoureuse et une tension d’esprit égale au moins à sa défiance, les émanations mortelles de ce livre imbiberont son âme comme l’eau le sucre. Il n’est pas bon que tout le monde lise les pages qui vont suivre ; quelques-uns seuls savoureront ce fruit amer sans danger. Par conséquent, âme timide, avant de pénétrer plus loin dans de pareilles landes inexplorées, dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant. Écoute bien ce que je te dis : dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror

“Oh incomprehensible pederasts, I shall not heap insults upon your great degradation; I shall not be the one to pour scorn on your infundibuliform anus. It is enough that the shameful and almost incurable maladies which besiege you should bring with them their unfailing punishments.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and Poems

“It is not right that everyone should read the pages which follow; only a few will be able to savour this bitter fruit with impunity. Consequently, shrinking soul, turn on your heels and go back before penetrating further into such uncharted, perilous wastelands. Listen well to what I say: turn on your heels and go back, not forward,[...]”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and Poems