Quotes by Gourmont, Remy De




Remy de Gourmont (April 4, 1858 - September 27, 1915) was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars. His poetic works include Litanies de la rose (1892), Les Saintes du paradis (1898), and Divertissements (1912). His poems plunge from perhaps ironic piety to equally ironic blasphemy; they reflect, more than anything else, his interest in medieval Latin literature, and his works led to a fad for late Latin literature among authors like Joris-Karl Huysmans. He was also a literary critic of great importance, and was admired by T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound in that capacity.

"The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe. A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble."

Gourmont, Remy De on definition    Share


"We live less and less, and we learn more and more. Sensibility is surrendering to intelligence."

Gourmont, Remy De on education    Share

"Nothing exists except by virtue of a disequilibrium, an injustice. All existence is a theft paid for by other existences; no life flowers except on a cemetery."

Gourmont, Remy De on existence    Share

"Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds"

Gourmont, Remy De on ideas    Share

"Each man must grant himself the emotions that he needs and the morality that suits him."

Gourmont, Remy De on individuality    Share

"Industry has operated against the artisan in favor of the idler, and also in favor of capital and against labor. Any mechanical invention whatsoever has been more harmful to humanity than a century of war."

Gourmont, Remy De on industry    Share

"Women still remember the first kiss after men have forgotten the last."

Gourmont, Remy De on women
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"Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests. It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but prejudices."

Gourmont, Remy De on prejudice    Share

"Of all the sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity."

Gourmont, Remy De on sex    Share

"Simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds."

Gourmont, Remy De on simplicity    Share

"Man is the inventor of stupidity."

Gourmont, Remy De on stupidity
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"If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be --not understood, but divined."

Gourmont, Remy De on understanding    Share

"The whole effort of a sincere man is to erect his personal impressions into laws."

Gourmont, Remy De on criticism    Share

"The terrible thing about the quest for truth is that you find it."

Gourmont, Remy De on truth    Share

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