Frasi di Joris Karl Huysmans

“Politica, volgare distrazione degli spiriti mediocri.”

“L'arte è l'unica cosa pulita sulla terra, a parte la santità.”

“Un colorista rivelatore […] che contribuì più di Manet al movimento impressionista, un artista dalle retine malate, che, nella sua esasperata percezione visiva, scoprì i prodromi di un'arte nuova: in tali termini si può sintetizzare il troppo dimenticato Cézanne.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I seek new perfumes, ampler blossoms, untried pleasures.”

“I wish to confound all these people, to create a work of art of a supernatural realism and of a spiritualist naturalism. I wish to prove… that nothing is explained in the mysteries which surround us.”

“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.”

“Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.”

“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.”