Jean Lorrain Quotes

(Priests) cheapjack merchants selling paradise

Her vice takes hold of her again, but she still refrains until some moment when, gnawed by some hideous caprice, she comes aground like a mournful wreck ruined by lust, in the midst of her own banal, perfidious pollution.

But that woman is an encyclopedia!
Of all vices, ancient and modern, and terribly interesting to leaf through!

A strange girl, all phosphorous and cantharides, burning with every desire! And burning with every vice!

You see, the strangeness of my case is that now I no longer fear the invisible, I’m terrified by reality.

The beauty of the twentieth century is the charm of the hospital, the grace of the cemetery, of consumption and emaciation. I admit that I have submitted to it all; worse, I have loved with all my heart.

It is the sheer ugliness and banality of everyday life which turns my blood to ice and makes me cringe in terror.

To dream! Such dreams certainly make life more worth living... and only dreams can do that for me.