Selected Writings Quotes

“Everything is alive, everything is in motion, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays that emanate from me or from others flow directly through the infinite chain of creation whose transparent network is in continuous communication with the planets and the stars. A captive here on earth for the moment, I commune with the chorus of stars and they join in my sorrows and joys.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“A serious bibliophile never lends his books. In fact he does not even read his books, for fear of wearing them out.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“My brow still burns from the kiss of the queen; I have dreamed in the grotto where the siren swims . . .”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“Illusions fall away one after another like the husks of a fruit, and that fruit is experience. It is bitter to the taste, but there is fortitude to be found in gall – forgive me my old-fashioned turns of phrase.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“Even as it clouds our corporeal vision, intoxication clarifies our spiritual vision. The mind, set free from the heavy bondage of the body, flees away like a prisoner whose guard has fallen asleep, leaving the keys at the prison gate.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“How lovely she was in her raiments of silk and levantine purple; the fabric provocatively set off the sheen of her white shoulders, which glistened with the sweat of the world. I was on the verge of giving in to the dangerous enticements of her caresses when I realized that I recognized her from an earlier encounter, back at the dawn of time.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“Childhood memories surge back more vividly midway through life – like some palimpsest whose original text suddenly reappears after the manuscript has been chemically treated.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“I’ve had enough of chasing after poetry; I believe that poetry lies at one’s very door or perhaps in one’s very bed. I’m still a man on the run, but I shall try to stop and wait.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“The last madness I’ll probably persist in is to believe myself a poet: it will be up to the critics to cure me.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“I am the other.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“The name Prometheus has always caused me particular annoyance, for my breast still aches from the everlasting beak of the vulture from which Alcides set me free.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“I have seen so many lands vanish in my wake, torn down like stage sets. What survives of them? An image as fleeting as a dream: whatever beauties I discovered, I already knew by heart.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings

“Don’t wait up for me tonight, for the night will be black and white.”
― Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings