Quotes by Theophile Gautier

• I am a man for whom the outside world exists.
• Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.
• What I write is not for little girls.
• To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
• The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.
• The cat is a dilettante in fur.
• Sooner barbarity than boredom.
• It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.
• If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.
• I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.
• You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.
• Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.
• Critical lice are like body lice, which desert corpses to seek the living.
• Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
• Books follow morals, and not morals books.
• Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.
• Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.
• A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.
• I was born to travel and write verse.