Joris-Karl Huysmans Quotes

Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin.

Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.

The modern painter…is an excellent couturier

He realized at last that the arguments of pessimism were powerless to comfort him

Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.

Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.

Art and prayer are the only decent ejaculations of the soul.

The loveliest tune imaginable becomes vulgar and insupportable as soon as the public begins to hum it and the hurdy-gurdies make it their own.

Only the chaste are truly obscene.

How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.

Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.

There's no doubt about it - gardeners are the only true artists these days.

Art is the only clean thing on earth, except holiness.

In the matter of animals I love only cats, but I love them unreasonably for their qualities and in spite of their numerous faults. I have only one, but I could not live without a cat.

The only really indecent people are the chaste.