Quotes by Gérard de Nerval

“Moi ? C'est une image que je poursuis, rien de plus.””

“Water drinkers perceive nothing but the crude and material appearance of things, while intoxication, on the contrary, dulls the eyes of the body and brightens those of the soul.””

“A serious bibliophile never lends his books. In fact he does not even his books, for fear of wearing them out.””

“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.””

“The first man who compared a woman to a rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile .””

“One third of our life is spent in sleep. It is consolation for the troubles of our waking hours or atonement for their pleasures; but I have never experienced sleep to be mere repose. After a few minutes' lethargy, a new life begins, untrammeled by the limitations of time and space, and undoubtedly similar to that which awaits us after death...””

“I am the Dark One, – the Widower, – the UnconsoledThe Aquitaine Prince whose Tower is destroyed:My only star is dead, - and my constellated luteBears the Black Sun of Melancholia.In the night of the Tomb, You who comforted me,Give me back Mount Posillipo and the Italian sea,The flower that my afflicted heart liked so muchAnd the trellised vineyard where the grapevine unites with the rose.Am I Amor or Phoebus ?… Lusignan or Biron ?My forehead is still red from the Queen’s kiss;I dreamt of the Cave where the mermaid swims…Twice victorious I crossed Acheron:Taking turn to play the Orpheus’ lyreThe sighs of the Saint and the Fairy’s screams.””

“My brow still burns from the kiss of the queen; I have dreamed in the grotto where the siren swims . . .””

“It is here that what I call the outpouring of dream into real life began. From that moment, everything took on a double aspect at times, and this occurred without my reason lacking logic and without my memory loosing the slightest details of what happened to me. But my actions, seemingly unconscious, were dominated by what human reason calls illusion.””

“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.””

“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.””

“If there is, to be sure, something more terrifying than the history of the fall of great empires, it is the history of the death of religions. Volney himself was overcome by this feeling as he visited the innumerable ruins of once-sacred buildings. The true believer may still escape from this impression, but with the inherent scepticism of our age all of us must sometime tremble to find so many dark gates opening out on to nothingness.””

“In a blank wall you may well fear the blindness which sees through you and sees you through.””